/  o 


(vjMtVSRSlTY   I 


Jht  llotg  of  tht  jvatiotui 


THE 

STORY  OF  'TURKEY 

I 
BY 

y 

STANLEY   LANE-POOLE 

ASSISTED    BY 

E.  J.  W.  GIBB  AND  ARTHUR  OILMAN 


NEW  YORK 
G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

LONDON:    T.  FISHER    UNWIN 
1897 


^ti 


copyright 

By  G.  p.  Putnam's  Sons 

1888 

Entered  nt  Stationers'  Hall^  London 

By  T.  Fisher  Unwin 


Press  of 

G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons 
New  York 


PREFACE. 


The  history  of  Turkey  has  yet  to  be  written.  The 
standard  authority  is  Von  Hammer's  Gesdiichte  des 
Osmanischen  Reiches,  of  which  there  is  a  French  trans- 
lation, and  from  which  many  books  have  been  com- 
piled in  many  languages.  In  English,  Von  Hammer 
found  an  able  condenser  in  Sir  Edward  Creasy,  whose 
History  of  the  Ottoman  Turks  is  the  best  concise  work 
we  possess  on  the  subject.  Von  Hammer,  however,  is 
not  always  accurate,  despite  his  laborious  research, 
and  he  is  generally  dull.  A  Turkish  scholar,  possessed 
of  a  sense  of  literary  form,  who  would  take  the  Aus- 
trian's facts,  collate  them  with  the  native  annalists  and 
historiographers,  and  present  them  with  all  the  advan- 
tages of  skilful  arrangement  and  charm  of  style,  would 
render  a  real  service  to  historical  literature. 

The  present  volume,  however,  makes  no  pretensions 
to  fill  the  gap.  All  that  is  here  attempted  is  to  draw 
the  main  outlines  of  Turkish  history  in  bold  strokes, 
and  thus  try  to  leave  a  connected  impression  on  the 
reader's  mind.  In  so  small  a  compass  it  is  impossible  to 
be  detailed.     Those  who  desire  more  than  can  here  be 


:9 


VI 11  PREFACE. 

given  should  turn  to  Sir  E.  Creasy,  or  to  the  Vte. 
A.  de  la  Jonquiere's  Histoire  de  V Empire  Ottoman,  in 
Duruy's  series  ;  and  thence,  if  still  ambitious,  to  Von 
Hammer.  In  these  pages  clearness  and  brevity 
have  been  the  main  considerations  ;  and,  while 
striving  to  escape  the  charge  of  prolixity,  I  have 
carefully  avoided  the  sin  of  moralizing.  Many  in- 
structive morals  have  been  drawn  from  the  past 
and  present  state  of  Turkey  ;  but  these  appear  to 
depend  so  much  for  their  point  and  application  upon 
the  political  bias  of  the  writer  that,  on  the  whole,  they 
are  best  omitted.  We  have  all  heard  about  the  "  sick 
man  "  and  the  "  armed  camp  : "  but,  if  we  are  Con- 
servatives, we  palliate  the  disease,  and  call  the  encamp- 
ment an  innocent  review  ;  if  we  are  Radicals,  we  send 
for  the  undertaker  for  the  one,  and  call  for  the  expul- 
sion of  the  other,  that  it  may  no  longer  menace  the 
peace  of  Europe.  Between  these  extremes,  the  reader 
may  take  his  choice. 

The  naval  history  of  Turkey,  a  subject  of  peculiar 
interest,  has  been  barely  touched  upon  here,  because 
it  is  so  closely  interwoven  with  the  exploits  of  the 
Barbary  buccaneers,  that  it  will  be  more  satisfactorily 
traced  in  the  Story  of  the  Corsairs,  \\h.\ch.  I  am  writing 
for  the  same  series.  Another  subject  which  has  been 
omitted  is  the  history  of  Egypt  under  Turkish  rule : 
for  this  belongs  to  the  special  volume  on  Modern 
Egypt,  now  in  preparation. 

I  owe  special  thanks  to  Mr.  E.  J.  W.  Gibb,  not  only 
for  the  chapters  on  "  Ottoman  Literature,"  "  Stambol," 
and  "  Ottoman  Administration,"  for  which  he  is  almost 


PREFACE.  IX 

entirely  responsible,  but  also  for  many  suggestions  and 
additions  in  other  parts  of  the  book,  the  whole  of 
which  has  had  the  advantage  of  his  revision.  Mr. 
Oilman  has  also  contributed  to  a  part  of  the  subject 
which  was  less  familiar  to  Mr.  Gibb  and  myself ;  and 
I  am  indebted  for  valuable  assistance  to  Mr.  H.  H» 
Howorth,  M.P.,  and  to  Mr.  W.  R.  Morfill,  whose 
advice  has  been  followed  in  the  systematic  spelling 
of  Russian  names. 

STANLEY  LANE-POOLE. 

BiRLiNG,  Sussex, 

January  17,  1888. 


CONTENTS. 


The  King's  Front.     125 0-1326 


1-24 


The  thirteenth  century  an  epoch  in  European  history,  i — and 
in  Asia,  2 — The  Mongols,  2 — The  Turks,  4 — The  Seljuks,  5 
— The  Mongols  again,  6 — The  distribution  of  the  Turks,  6 — 
Seljuks  of  Iconium,  8— Battle  of  Angora,  8 — Establishment 
of  Ertoghriil  and  the  Turks,  9 — Sultanoni,  10 — Birth  of  Olh- 
man,  13— His  dream,  14,  and  marriage,  15 — Extension  of 
the  Ottoman  dominion,  16 — War  with  the  Eastern  Empire,  19 
■ — Conquest  of  Brusa,  23— Death  of  Othman,  23. 


II. 


Across  the  Hellespont.    1326-1380 


25-41 


Orkhan,  25 — Conquest  of  Nicomedia,  Nicaea,  and  Pergamon, 
25 — Organization  of  the  state  and  army,  26— The  Janissaries, 
27 — Sipahis,  31 — Causes  of  the  success  of  the  Ottomans,  32 — 
Relations  with  the  Eastern  Empire,  33 — The  Turks  land  in 
Europe,  34 — Capture  of  Gallipoli,  34 — Murad  I.,  35 — The 
Slavs,  36  — War  with  Hungarians,  Serbians,  &c.,  36 — Battle 
of  the  Marilza,  36  -Advance  of  the  Ottoman  dominion  in 
Europe,  39— and  in  Asia,  40. 


III. 

Kosovo  and  Nicopolis.     1380-1402  .        .        .     42-59 

War  with  the  Serbians,  &c.,    42— Battle    of    Kosovo,    43— 


Xll  CONTENTS. 

PAGB 

Assassination  of  Murad  I.,  45 — BayezTd  I.,  46 — Despina,  49 
— Subjugation  of  Serbia  and  Wallachia,  49,  50 — Crusade 
against  the  Turks,  51 — Battle  of  Nicopolis,  55— Massacre  of 
prisoners,  57. 

IV. 

TiMtTR  THE  Tartar.      1402        .        ,        .        .     60-73 

Bayezid's  power,  60 — Timur,  63—  Siege  of  Slwas,  65 — Second 
battle  of  Angora,  66 — Captivity  and  death  of  Bayezld,  72 — 
Apparent  destruction  of  the  Ottoman  power,  73, 

V. 

Mohammed  the  Restorer.     1402-142  i     .        .    74-84 

Vitality  of  the  Turkish  rule,  74 — Causes,  75 — Organization 
and  education,  76 — Mohammed  I.,  78 — Civil  war,  79 — Re- 
storation of  order  and  authority,  80 — Mohammed  the  "gen- 
tleman," 83— His  death,  83. 

VI. 

Murad  II.  and  Hunyady.     1421-1451      .        .    85-98 

Murad  XL,  85 — Siege  of  Constantinople,  86 — Hunyady,  87 — 
Relief  of  Hermannstadt,  88 — Passage  of  the  Balkan,  89 — 
Treaty  of  Szegedin,  89 — Abdication  of  Murad,  89— Perfidy 
of  the  Christians,  90 — Return  of  Murad,  91 — Battle  of 
Varna,  92 — Second  battle  of  Kosovo,  96 — Death  of  Murad, 
96 — Siege  of  Belgrade,  97 — St.  John  Capistran,  97 — Death 
of  Hunyady,  98. 

VII.  • 

The  Fall  of  Constantinople.     1451-1481  .     1 01-139 

Mohammed  II.,  loi — Quarrel  with  Constantine  Palaeologus, 
107 — Sieges  of  Constantinople,    108 — The  final  siege,  108 — 


CONTENTS,  Xiii 

PAGE 

Death  of  Constantine,  125 — Capture  of  the  city,  129 — War 
in  the  north,  133 — Scanderbeg,  133 — War  with  Venice,  135 
— Negropont,  Crimea,  Rhodes,  136— Conquest  of  Otranto 
and  death  of  Mohammed  II.,  139. 


VIII. 

Prince  Jem.     1481-1512  ....     140-151 

Bayezid  II.,  140 — H's  inaction  and  deposition,  140-1 — 
Prince  Jem,  141 — Takes  refuge  with  the  Knights  of  Rhodes, 
and  is  made  prisoner,  142 — Transferred  to  Nice,  145,  and 
Rome,  146,  and  is  probably  poisoned  by  the  Pope,  Alexander 
Borgia,  149-150. 

IX. 

The  Conquest  of  Egypt.     1512-1520   .        .     152-164 

Sellm  II.,  ••  the  Grim,"  152— Murder  of  his  kindred,  152 — 
His  literary  talent,  153 — His  policy,  153 — Persian  history, 
154 — Shia?,  155 — Selim  massacres  the  heretics,  155 — War 
with  Shah  Ismail,  156 — Battle  of  Chaldiran,  157 — The  Mam- 
luk  Sultans  of  Egypt  and  Syria,  158 — Their  valour,  159 — 
Their  mosques  and  palaces,  160 — Selim  marches  against  them, 
161 — Battles  of  Marj  Dabik,  Gaza,  and  Reydaniya,  161 — 
Conquest  of  Egypt,  162 — Selim  becomes  Khalif,  162,  and 
dies,  163. 

X. 

SULEYMAN   THE    MAGNIFICENT.       1 5  20-1 5 66         .       1 65-204 

A  great  epoch,  165 — Suleyman  and  his  contemporaries,  166 
—His  character,  169— Capture  of  Belgrade,  169— Conquest  of 
Rhodes,  170— Ibrahim  the  Grand  Vezir,  173— Invasion  of 
Hungary,  174— Battle  of  Mohacs,  179— Fall  of  Buda,  Pesth, 
Gran,  Comorn,  Raab,  and  Altenburg,  180— Advance  on 
Vienna,  183— The  defence,  184— The  siege,  187— The  re- 
treat, 190— Peace  of  Constantinople,  191 — Siege  of  Sziget- 
var,  192— Nicholas  Zriny,  192— Death  of  Sukyman,  192 — 
Roxelana,  195— Turkish  admirals,  Barbarossa,  Dragut,  Piali, 
196 — Suleyman's  Empire,  196. 


XIV  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 
XI. 

The  Downward  Road.     15 66- 1640        .        .     205-220 

The  turn  of  the  tide,  205 — Causes  of  the  decline,  206 — 
Selim  the  Sot,  208 — Sokolli  Mohammed,  208 — Sinan  Pasha, 
208 — Expedition  to  Astrakhan,  208 — Conquest  of  Cyprus, 
208-9 — Battle  of  Lepanto,  209 — Don  John  of  Austria,  209 — 
Uluj  All,  210 — Peace  with  Venice,  210 — Murad  III.  and 
Mohammed  III.,  213 — Safia,  213— Count  Cicala,  213 — 
Battle  of  the  Keresztes,  213 — Ahmed  I.,  214 — English  em- 
bassy, 214— Mnrad  IV.,  217 — Conquest  of  Georgia,  217 — 
Mutiny  of  Sipahl>,  218 — Severity  of  the  Sultan,  219 — Con- 
quest of  Baghdad,  219 — Death  of  Murad  IV.,  220. 

XII. 

The  Rule  of  the  Vezirs.     1640-1757  .     221-242 

The  Koprili  family,  221 — Koprili  Mohammed,  221 — Koprili- 
zada  Ahmed,  222— Battle  of  St.  Gotthard,  222 — Montecuculi, 
222 — Conquest  of  Candia,  225 — Morosini,  225 — War  with 
Poland,  225 — John  Sobieski,  225 — Battles  of  Choczim  and 
Lemberg,  225— Kara  Mustafa,  Grand  Vezir,  226 — Invasion  of 
Austria,  227^ — Second  siege  of  Vienna,  228 — Sobieski  comes 
to  the  relief,  231 — Defeat  of  the  Turks,  236 — Vienna  saved, 
237 — Mohammed  IV.,  the  sportsman,  237 — Treatment  of  am- 
bassadors, 238— Second  battle  of  Mohacs,  239 — Buda  retaken 
by  the  Christians,  239 — Morosini  in  Greece,  239 — Koprili-zada 
Mustafa,  240 — War  with  Austria,  240 -Battle  of  Slankamen, 
240 — Mustafa  II.,  240— Battle  of  Zenta,  241 — Mediation  of 
Lord  Paget,  241 — Peace  of  Carlowitz,  241— Prince  F^ugene 
takes  Belgrade,  241 — Peace  of  Passarowitz,  241 — Turkey  no 
longer  a  menace  to  Christendom,  242. 

XIII. 
The  Rise  of  Russia.     1696- 1812  .        .        .     243-259 

Traditional  origin  of  the  Russians,  243 — Novgorod,  244 — 
Rurik,  245 — Kiev,  245— Olga  Ijecomes  a  Christian,  246 — 
Vladimir  the  Great,  246 — Moscow,  246 — Incursions  of  Tartars, 
247— Batu  at  Liegnitz,  247— The  Golden  Horde,  248— Alex- 
ander Nevski,  248— Ivan  the  Great,   249 — Diplomatic  inter- 


CONTENTS,  XV 

PAGE 

course  with  Turkey,  248— Early  attacks  on  the  Bosphorus, 
250 — Ivan  the  Terrible,  251 — The  Astrakhan  expedition,  251 
— Peter  the  Great,  252 — The  Sultan  protects  Charles  II.  of 
Sweden,  253 — Peter  surrounded  at  the  Pruth,  253 — Peace  of 
Belgrade,  254 — Treaty  of  Kaynarji,  254 — Catherine  the  Great, 
254,  vis'ts  the  Crimea,  255 --Siege  of  Ochakov,  256 — Suvo- 
rov,  256— Treaty  of  Yassy,  256— Tilsit,  2S7— Sir  Robert 
Adair,  258 — Stratford  Canning,  258  Treaty  of  Bucharest, 
259 — Its  effect  upon  Napoleon's  retreat  from  Moscow,  259. 

XIV. 
Stambol 260-301 

Site,  260 — Christian  suburbs,  265 — Palaces  of  the  Sultan,  266 
— The  Old  Seraglio,  267 — The  treasury,  273 — Relics,  275 — 
The  cage,  275—  The  harem,  276— Officers  of  the  Seraglio,  276 
— Ladies  of  the  harem,  291 — Abdul-Aziz's  privy  purse,  293 — 
A  medieval  embassy,  294. 

XV. 

O'lTOMAN  Literature 302-323 

Characteristics,  302 — Monorhyme,  303 — Ghazel,  303 — Sej, 
303 — GhazI  Fazil,  304 — Sheykhl,  304 — Vaziji-oghlu's  Moham- 
mediya — History  of  the  Forty  Vezirs — Mir  All  Shir  Nevayi, 
309— Ahmed  Pasha,  309— Sinan  Pasha,  309  — Nejati  and  ZatI, 
Zeyneb,  Mihri,  310 — Poetry  of  Selim  I.,  310 — Ibn-Kenial, 
311 — ^Joseph  and  Zuleykha,  311 — Mesihi,  311 — Fuzull,  312 — 
Baki,  314— Nef'!,  315— SabrI,  315 — NabI,  318 — Raghib  Pasha 
and  Sami,  318-NedIm,  318 — Prose  since  the  conquest  of 
Constantinople,  320 — Sa'd-ud-din.  320 — Na'ima,  320 — Evliya, 
321 — Haji  Khalifa,  321— Sheykh  Ghalib,  321— Transition 
period,  321— Wasif,  322-  Modern  school,  322— Akif  and 
Reshid  Pasha,  323 — ShinasI,  Kemal,  Ekrem,  and  Hamid 
Beys,  323. 

XVI. 

The  Ottoman   Administration       .         .         .     324-339 

The  Sultan,  324— State  functionaries,  327— Companions  of 
the  Pen,  327— The  Tughra,  329— Companions  of  the  Sword, 


XVi  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

330 — Ducal  government,  331 — Men  of  Law,  333 — The  Divan, 
or  Council,  335 — The  Kapudan  Pasha,  336 — The  Grand 
Vezir,  336 — Declaration  of  War,  336 — State  robes,  339 — 
Modern  innovations,  339. 

XVII. 
The  Sick  Man.     181 2- 1880   ....    340-365 

Characteristics  of  the  recent  Turkish  history,  340 — Turkish 
military  strength,  340 — Changes  in  the  present  century,  341 — 
Mahmud  II.,  343 — The  growth  of  local  power,  343 — Mo- 
hammed AH  in  Egypt  and  All  Pasha  of  Janina,  343 — Destruc- 
tion of  the  Janissaries,  344 — The  Greek  rebellion,  345 — 
Navarino,  346 — Russian  war,  346 — Treaty  of  Adrianople,  349 
— War  with  Egypt,  349 — Hunkiar  Iskelesi,  349 — Treaty  of 
1841,  350 — Abd-ul-Mejid,  350 — Sit  Stratford  Canning,  350 — 
Reform  in  Turkey,  352 — The  Hungarian  refugees,  354 — The 
Holy  Places,  355 — The  Crimean  war,  356 — Treaty  of  Paris, 
358  —  Repudiation  by  Russia  of  Black  Sea  clause,  359  — 
Rumania,  359 — Abd-ul-AzIz,  360 — Murad  V.,  360 — Abd-ul- 
Hamld  II.,  360 — The  Bulgarian  atrocities,  360 — The  latest 
Russo-Turkish  war,  361 — Plevna,  361 — The  Treaty  of  Berlin, 
362 — Shrunken  dimensions  of  the  Ottoman  Empire,  363 — 
Conclusion,  364. 

Index 367 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGE 

SIEGE  OF  CONSTANTINOPLE     ....         Frontispiece 

ROCK   MONASTERY,   ANATOLIA            .          .          .          .          .  II 

A  TURKISH   MERRY-MAKING \^ 

BRUSA 21 

JANISSARIES  AND  MUSICIANS 29 

GREEKS 37 

TURKISH   FUNERAL 47 

NICOPOLIS o         ...  53 

MANUEL  PALAEOLOGUS 61 

A  TURKISH   MEAL ^1 

A  VENETIAN  GALLEY 8 1 

JANISSARY   IN   MUFTI ..93 

BELGRADE 99 

MEDAL  OF  MOHAMMED   II I04 

MEDAL  OF   MOHAMMED    II.   (REVERSE)     .           .           .           •  I05 

PLAN   OF  CONSTANTINOPLE       .           e           .           .          .           •  I09 

SIEGE  OF  CONSTANTINOPLE I '5 

SANTA  SOPHIA 127 

RHODES '          -  '^yj 

BATTLE  WITH   PRINCE  JEM 143 

PALACE  OF  THE  GRAND  MASTERS,   RHODES   .  .  .147 


XVlll  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGE 

SULEYMAN  THE  MAGNIFICENT   (IN  YOUTH)     .          .          .  167 

SIEGE  OF  RHODES I7I 

COUNCIL   HALL,   RHODES I75 

PRIORY  OF   FRANCE,   RHODES             .    ,       •          •          .          »  177 

SULEYMAN  ON  THE   WAR-PATH          ,          ♦          •          ,           ,  18I 

VIENNA   (1483) 185 

SULTAN  SULEYMAN .193 

ROXELANA I97 

GROWTH   OF  THE  OTTOMAN    EMPIRE       .           •          •          ,  202 

DECLINE  OF  THE   OTTOMAN    EMPIRE        .          •          •          ,  203 

SULEYMANIYA  MOSQUE,    1 556.           .          .          .          •          ,  211 
THE  GRAND  SIGNIOR   IN   ROBES  OF    STATE     .          •          .215 

THE  GRAND   VEZiR ,          .  223 

ST.   STEPHEN'S  CATHEDRAL,   VIENNA        ....  22g 

SERAGLIO  POINT ,          .  263 

GATE  OF   FELICITY   IN  THE  SERAGLIO     .          .          .          .  27I 

GREEK  TRADERS 289 

ST.  SOPHIA 307 

MOSAIC   IN    ST.   SOPHIA ,          ,  325 

TUGHRA  OF  ABD-UL-AZIZ 329 

IN  THE   HAREM           .           .           .          .          •          .          •          .  337 

BATTLE  OF  NAVARINO 347 


Some  of  the  above  are  copied  from  a  curious  work  of  P.  Coeck,  Les 
Moeurs,  etc.,  des  Turcz  (1553),  which  vSir  W.  vStirling  Maxwell  ediietl 
in  1873  under  the  title  of  The  Turks  in  1533.  The  original  is  in  the 
British  Museum.  Others  are  reproductions  of  some  of  the  cuts  in  the 
Recueil  de  cent  estampes  ^iiravi'cs  stir  Ics  tableaux  pdnts  ifaprcs  nature 
en  1707  et  1708,  par  les  ordres  de  M.  de  ferriol^  anibassadtur  du  rot 
a  /a  Forte  (1714). 


GENEALOGICAL   TREE   OF   THE    OTHMANLI 
SULTANS. 

I.  'Othman  I.,  1299 

2.  Orkhan,  1326 

3.  Murad  I.,  1360 

4.  Bayezid  I.,  1389 

I  \  —\ 410. 

Prince  Suleyman,  1403.     5.  Mohammed  L,  1402.     Prince  Musa,  1 

6.  Murad  II.,  1421 

7.  Mohammed  II.,  1451 

8.  Bayezid  II.,  1481 

9.  Selim  I.,  1512 
10.  Suleyman  I.,  1520 

II.  Selim  II.,  1566 

J 

12.  Murad  III.,  1574 

13.  Mohammed  III.,  1595 


14.  Ahmed  I.,  1603  15.  Mustafa  I.,  1617.     (2)  1623. 

1  J  ^1 

16.  'Othman  II.,  i6i8.  17.  Murad  IV.,  1623.        18.  Ibrahim,  1640 


I  I  I 

19.  Mohammed  IV.,  1648.     20.  Suleyman  II.,  1687      21.  Ahmed  II,,  1691. 


22.  Mustafa  II.,  1695.  23.  Ahmed  III.,  1703 


24.  Mahmud  I.,  1730.  25.  'Othman  III.,  1754. 


26,  Mustafa  III.,  1757  27.  'Abd-ul-Hamid  I.,  1773 

J.  Selim  III.,  1789.  1      ~~~  I 

29.  Mu§tafa  IV.,  1807.     30.  Mahmud  II.,  1808. 


31.  'Abd-ul-Mejid,  1839.  32.  'Abd-ul-'Aziz,  i86i. 

33    Murad  V.,  1876.  34.  'Abd-ul-Hamid  II.  (regnant),  1876. 


THE   STORY   OF  TURKEY. 


I. 


(1250-1326.) 

The  thirteenth  century  was  an  eventful  epoch  for 
all  Europe.  The  overshadowing  power  of  the  Empire 
was  waning,  separate  states  were  springing  up  in 
Italy  and  Germany,  and  the  growth  of  civil  liberty 
was  bringing  its  fruit  in  the  enlargement  of  ideas  and 
the  founding  of  universities.  In  England,  the  Nor- 
man and  Saxon  were  at  last  one  people,  and  the 
business  of  the  natior  was  to  strengthen  the  bond 
which  united  them  ;  Magna  Charta  was  signed,  and 
the  first  Parliament  was  summoned.  In  the  East  the 
long  struggle  for  the  Holy  City  had  ended  in  the  dis- 
comfiture of  the  Christians,  and  the  last  of  the  Crusades 
was  led  by  Saint  Louis  against  the  Mamluks  of  Egypt, 
where  the  king  and  his  army  were  taken  captive. 
What  was  lost  in  the  East  was  gained  in  the  West : 
Ferdinand  of  Castile  was  winning  city  after  city 
from  the  Moors  in  Spain,  who  were  now  fortifying 


2  THE   KING'S   FRONT, 

themselves  in  their  last  stronghold  at  Granada,  where 
they  held  out  for  two  centuries  more.  Sicily,  which 
had  once  been  a  favourite  province  of  the  Saracens, 
was  the  scene  of  a  series  of  tragedies :  Manfred  was 
killed  by  Count  Charles  of  Anjou,  whose  tyranny  led 
to  the  fatal  "  Vespers "  and  the  foundation  of  the 
Kingdom  of  the  Two  Sicilies.  All  Europe  was  heated 
with  the  strong  wine  of  political  change. 

In  this  same  eventful  century  Asia  was  passing 
through  a  still  more  sudden  and  subversive  revolu- 
tion. The  Mongolian  hordes  of  Chingiz  Khan  had 
been  let  loose  from  their  plains  of  Central  Asia,  and, 
like  the  bursting  of  long  pent  up  waters,  had  poured 
in  a  swift  whirling  flood  over  all  the  countries  of  the 
East,  and  carried  ruin  and  devastation  whithersoever 
they  went.  Chingiz  himself  died  in  the  earlier  part 
of  the  century,  but  his  sons  and  grandsons  proved 
themselves  worthy  disciples  of  their  terrible  sire.  The 
famous  Khalifate  of  Baghdad,  which  during  half  a 
millennium  had  been  the  inheritor  of  the  most  sacred 
traditions  of  Islam,  now  fell  for  ever  before  the  on- 
slaught of  Hulagu  Khan.  The  fair  provinces  which 
had  owned  the  victorious  sway  of  Saladin  and  his 
house,  and  were  now  the  appanage  of  those  gallant 
Mamluk  chiefs  whose  wealth  and  taste  placed  Cairo 
and  Damascus  on  the  pinnacle  of  renown,  were 
menaced  and  partly  overrun  by  the  barbarian  ;  and 
the  mountain  passes  of  Anatolia,  which  for  generations 
had  suffered  no  sovereign  tread  save  that  of  the  Sel- 
juk  Sultan  of  Iconium,  now  shook  under  the  tramp 
of  the  Tartar's  horse.  A  Mongol  army  even  pene- 
trated Europe  as  far  as  Germany,  ravaged  Hungary, 


THE  MONGOLS.  3 

routed  the  Teutonic  knights  at  Liegnitz,  and  then  con- 
tentedly returned  to  their  Eastern  deserts,  as  though 
contemptuous  of  the  attractions  of  Europe. 

It  was  fortunate  that  the  Mongols  were  possessedv 
by   the   migratory    spirit    too   strongly   to   think   of] 
settling  in  cities  and  founding  empires  ;  the  wave  ofl 
barbarism  flowed,  but  happily  it  also  ebbed.     In  the( 
far    East    its    influence    was    more    enduring ;     the 
descendants  of    Chingiz  were  for  many  generations 
Yuen  emperors  of  China,  Khans  of  Turkistan,  chiefs 
of  the  Golden  Horde,  of  the  Crimea,  and  of  Kazan, 
whence  for  centuries  they  dominated  and  curbed  the 
rising  power  of  Russia.     All  these  dynasties  reigned 
in  the  domain  of  barbarism  :  they  left  no  lasting  im- 
press on  the  civilized  lands  of  the  Khalifate,  where 
Arab,  Persian,  and  Turk  had  each  in  turn  put  forth 
the  best  of  his  genius,  and  had  assimilated  and  de- 
veloped what  elements  of  philosophy,  art,  and  science, 
had  come  within  his  reach. 

To   trace  the  pedigree  of  the  Ottoman  Turks  we      i^^ 
must  look  back  into  remote  antiquity.     In  the  early 
history  of  Central  and  Eastern  Asia  everything  is  more 
or  less  conjecture,  but   this  at  least  is  certain,  that 
among  the  numerous  nomad  tribes  who  roamed  the 
plains  of  Sungaria  and  the  great  desert  of  Gobi,  and 
from  time  to  time  broke  loose  in  one  of  those  great 
waves   of  migration  which  paralyzed  the  peoples  of\ 
Europe  and  of  Western  Asia,  there  were  two  races  1 
whichalternately  filled  the  rS/e  of  '^  the  scourges  of 
God7~the  Mongols   anTlhe~Turks7  '  The    Alongols 
first  appear  on  the  scene  under  the  name  of  Hiong"^ 
Nu  as  dominating  the  nomad  world  in  the  days  of 


4  THE   KING'S  FRONT. 

the  Chinese  dynasty  of  the  Han,  and  dominating 
especially  tlie  two  great  branches  of  the  Turkish 
race  known  as  Uighurs  and  Turks  properly  so  called. 
The  Uighurs  eventually  became  free  from  this  domi- 
nation, and  under  the  names  of  Yueh  chi  and 
White  Huns  broke  in  pieces  the  Greek  kingdom 
of  Bactria,  and  founded  a  famous  empire,  with  its 
capital  at  Balkh,  which  became  the  scourge  of  the 
Sassanians  on  the  one  hand,  and  filled  a  more  re- 
markable place  in  Indian  history  than  is  generally 
suspected  on  the  other.  The  power  of  the  Hiong 
Nu  was  destroyed  by  the  Chinese  ;  it  revived  again 
presently  under  the  Jouan-Jouan,  who  were  masters  of 
all  the  steppes  from  the  Volga  eastwards.  A  revolt 
took  place  against  the  Jouan-Jouan  in  the  beginning  of 
\the  sixth  century  when  the  Turks  eo  nomine  are  for 
the  first  time  heard  of  in  history.  They  founded  an 
empire  which  stretched  from  the  borders  of  Manchuria 
to  the  Carpathians,  and  commanded  also  Trans- 
oxiana  and  the  country  as  far  as  the  Indus  Their 
power  south  of  the  Sihun  or  Jaxartes  was  sapped  and 
eventually  destroyed  by  the  Arabs,  who  founded  the 
Samani  dynasty  ;  but  the  Turks  remained  masters  of 
the  steppes,  and  supplied  the  Samanis,  and  even  the 
Khalifs,  with  mercenary  troops  whose  leaders  pre- 
sently supplanted  their  masters  and  founded  a  famous 
Turkish  dynasty  at  Ghazni,  while  somewhat  later 
fresh  hordes  under  their  own  leaders  planted  them- 
selves in  Khorasan  and  created  the  splendid  empire 
of  the  Seljuks,  who  from  the  eleventh  to  the  thirteenth 
century  governed  the  greater  part  of  the  Khalifs' 
dominions  in  Asia,  and  advanced  the  Mohammedan 


THE  SELJUKS.  5 

rule  into  the  mountain  ranges  of  Anatolia,  and  thus 
prepared  the  way  for  the  Ottomans,  their  successors. 
By  this  time  the  empire  of  the  Khalifs  was  full  of 
Turks.  They  were  introduced  first  as  captives,  whose ^ 
fair  beauty  speedily  commended  itself  to  the  Arab 
princes,  and  whose  martial  vigour  marked  them  out 
as  a  fit  body-guard  for  the  Khalif  against  his  unruly 
subjects  in  Persia.  First  as  slaves,  then  as  a  military 
aristocracy,  and  theri  as^eljul<iarpSultans,the  Turks 
pressed  forwards  and  absorbed  all  the  power  which 
had  once  belonged  to  Arab  and  Persian,  from  the 
river  Oxus  to  the  borders  of  Egypt  and  the  Asiatic 
frontier  of  the  Byzantine  Empire. 

i  he  Seljuks  of  Khorasan  and  Persia  were  displaced 
by  their  own  vassals,  the  Shahs  of  Khuwarezm 
or  Khiva,  who  were  supported  by  hordes  of  the 
Kankalis  from  the  country  north  of  the  Sea  of  Aral, 
and  who  were  the  ancestors  of  the  modern  Turko- 
mans. The  Shahs  of  Khuwarezm  step  by  step 
succeeded  to  the  dominion  of  their  late  masters, 
and  at  one  time,  at  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth 
century,  threatened  to  gather  under  their  authority 
the  whole  Asiatic  empire  of  Islam.  But  when  they 
were  about  to  realize  their  utmost  dreams  of  supre- 
macy a  sudden  blow  crushed  them,  and  the  king- 
dom of  Khuwarezm  was  blotted  out  from  the  list 
of  principalities  and  powers.  The  resources  of  the 
steppes  of  Tartary  were  not  yet  exhausted  :  there  were 
still  whole  nations  of  barbarians  ready  to  emerge  from 
obscurity,  and  swoop  down  upon  the  rich  territories 
of  the  earlier  emigrants.  This  time  it  was  the  Mongol 
race  that  Asia  again  poured  forth  to  terrify  the  West. 


^ 


THE   KING  S  FRONT, 


Chingiz  Khan,  as  has  been  said,  surrounded  by  a  family 
of  born  soldiers,  and  followed  by  hordes  of  nomads 
like  the  sands  of  the  sea  without  number,  overran  the 
dominions  of  the  Khuwarezm  Shah,  and  sweeping 
over  the  empire  of  the  Khalifate  and  of  the  Seljuks 
appeared  ready  and  able  to  make  a  tabula  rasa  of  all 
existing  authority.  His  armies  even  spread  into 
Europe,  and  but  for  the  valour  of  the  Teutonic 
Knights  might  have  arrested  for  awhile  the  dawning 
civilization  of  the  West.  Of  this  tremendous  inva- 
sion the  only  trace  which  remains  in  Europe  is  to  be 
found  in  Russia,  whose  history  was  shaped  and  whose 
political  and  moral  characteristics  are  largely  trace- 
able to  the  long  domination  of  the  Tartars. 

The  Turks,  however,  remained  masters  of  the  west 
of  Asia,  and  the  Mongol  tide  only  swept  them  further 
soiTflT^and  west  on  its  boisterous  crest.  Driven  from 
Khuwarezm  on  the  downfall  of  that  kingdom,  they 
fled  south.  Some  of  them  took  a  prominent  part  in 
Persian  and  Syrian  history  in  the  fourteenth  and 
fifteenth  century  under  the  names  of  Turkomans  of 
the  White  and  the  Black  Sheep.  Others  wan- 
dered further  south  and  came  into  conflict  with  the 
Mamluk  Sultans  of  Egypt,  who  were  also  members 
of  the  great  Turkish  family  ;  and  when  they  were 
beaten  back,  turned  north  and  joined  their  kinsmen 
of  the  race  of  Seljuk  in  Asia  Minor.  One  of  these 
tribes  who  had  been  set  wandering  by  the  rude  shock 
of  the  Mongol  invasion,  and  who  eventually  came  to 
join  the  Turks  of  Anatolia  in  the  curious  manner  we 
have  related  after  the  battle  of  Angora,  was  that  of 
vErtoghrul,  which  afterwards   became  famous   under 


/ 


THE   TURKS.  y- 

the  victorious  name  of  the  Ottomans.  When  they 
joined  their  kinsmen  in  Lesser  Asia  almost  all  the 
Mohammedan  world  was  in  the  hands  of  the  nomad 
tribes  of  the  steppes.  Turks  ruled  in  Asia  Minor, 
Turks  governed  Egypt,  Turks  held  minor  authority 
under  the  Mongols  in  Syria  and  Mesopotamia,  while 
the  descendants  of  Chingiz  had  succeeded  to  the 
dominion  of  the  Khalifs  in  Persia,  had  assumed 
all  the  dignity  of  sovereignty  in  the  wild  regions  of 
the  Volga  and  the  Ural  Mountains,  in  the  lands  of 
the  Oxus,  and  the  deserts  of  Tartary,  had  spread 
across  Central  Asia  and  had  founded  an  empire  in 
China,  and  were  preparing  to  establish  the  long  line  of 
Mongol  emperors  in  Hindustan  whom  we  know  by 
the  name  of  the  Great  Moguls.^ 

It  was  reserved  for  the  Turkish  race  to  be  lord  of  the 
countries  bordering  the  Mediterranean  Sea.  The  Turks 
were  there  before  the  Mongols,  and  the  Turks  are 
there  still.  The  Mamluks  of  Egypt,  mainly  of  Turkish 
blood,  withstood  the  Mongol  tide  which  was  breaking 
upon  their  marches  ;  the  Turkish  Sultans  of  Iconium, 
of  the  lineage  of  Seljuk,  breasted  for  awhile  the  swell- 
ing surge  of  barbarism  ;  and  their  successors,  the 
Turks  of  Othman's  line,  drove  the  Mongols  inch  by 
inch  out  of  the  Lesser  Asia,  and  taking  to  themselves 
the  whole  of  the  eastern  and  southern  coasts  of  the 
Mediterranean,  and  turning  the  Black  Sea  into  a 
Turkish  lake,  tamed  and  bitted  the  descendants  of 
the   great   Chingiz    himself    in    the    Crimea.      The 

^  I  am  indebted  to  our  greateist  authority  on  the  history  of  the  Mongol 
and  Turkish  races,  Mr.  H.  H.  Howorth,  M.P.,  for  valuable  suggestions 
on  the  migrations  of  the  Turkish  tribes. 


8  THE   king's  front. 

Ottoman  Turk  now  sits  in  the  seat  of  Hulagu  at 
Baghdad  ;  he  has  long  owned  the  territories  of  the 
Seljuks,  the  empire  of  Saladin,  and  the  slim  river 
valley  of  the  Mamluks.  The  dominion  of  the  Sara- 
cens, which  the  Mongols  in  vain  essayed  to  grasp, 
passed  into  the  hands  of  the  Turks,  and  the  stock  to 
whom  this  wide  empire  still  belongs,  shorn  as  it  is  of 
its  ancient  renown,  had  its  origin  in  the  throes  of  the 
Mongol  invasion  ;  the  struggle  between  the  invaders 
and  the  old  masters  of  Anatolia  was  commemorated 
by  the  birth  of  the  Ottoman  Turk. 

The  thirteenth  century  had  run  half  its  course 
whetTXay-Kubad^  the  Seljuk  Sultaii  oTTconlum,  was 
one  day  hard  beset  near  Angora  by  a  Mongol 
arm3^  The  enemy  was  rapidly  gaining  the  mastery, 
when  suddenly  the  fortune  of  the  day  was  reversed. 
A  small  boHy  of  unknown  horsemen  charged  upon 
the  toeT^ancT  Victory  ^^darecifox  lhe_Seljuk__The 
cavaTIers  who  had  thus  opportunely-  come  to  the 
rescue  knew  not  whom  they. had_ assisted,  nor  did  the 
Seljuks  recognize  their  allies.  Themeetmg^jivas_one 
of  those~"remafkabTe  accidents  which  sometimes  shape 
the  future  of  nations.  Ertoghrul,  son  of  Suleyman — 
a  mernber  of  the  Oghuz  family  of  Turks,  which  the 
Mongol  avalanche  had  dislodged  from  its  old  camping 
grounds  in  Khorasan  and  had  pressed  in  a  westerly 
direction — was  journeying  from  the  Euphrates'  banks, 
where  he  had  halted  awhile,  to  the  more  peaceful  se- 
clusion of  Anatolia,  when  he  unexpectedly  came  upon 
the  battlefield  of  Angora.  With  the  nomad's  love  of  a 
scrimmage,  and  the  warrior's  sympathy  for  the~weaker 
side,  he  led  his  four  hundred  riders  pell-mell  into  the 


BATTLE   OF  ANGORA.  g 

fray  and  won  the  day.  He  little  thought  that  by  his 
impulsive  and  chivalrous  act  he  had  taken  the  first 
step  towards  founding  an  empire  that  was  destined 
to  endure  in  undiminished  glory  for  three  centuries, 
and  which  even  now,  when  more  than  six  hundred 
years  have  el apsed  and  many  a  fair  province  has 
been  wrested_or  inveigled  out  of  its  grasp,  still  stands 
lord  over  wide  lands,  and  holds  the  allegiance  of  many 
peoples  of  divers  races  and  tongues.  From  Ertogh- 
rul  to  the  reigning  Sultan  of  Turkey,  thirty-five 
princes  in  the  male  line  have  ruled  the  Ottoman  Em- 
pire without  a  break  in  the  succession.  There  is  no 
such  example  of  the  continuous  authority  of  a  single 
family  in  the  history  of  Europe. 

The  Seljuk  Sultan  was  not  slow  to  reward  his 
unexpected  allies.  The  strangers  were  granted  their 
wish  and  established  themselves  in  the  dominions  of 
Kay-Kubad  ;  their  summer  camp  was  on  the  Ermeni 
mountains,  which  form  the  southern  rampart  of  the 
Roman  province  of  Bithynia,  wherein  were  the  great 
Greek  cities  of  Brusa  and  Nicaea  ;  and  in  winter  they 
drove  their  Hocks  from  the  southern  slopes  to  the  valley 
of  the  Sangarius  (Sakariya),  where  the  city  of  Sugut, 
which  the  Greeks  called  Thebasion,  was  given  them 
as  their  capital.  Behind  was  Angora,  where  they  had 
made  their  first  appearance  on  a  great  battlefield  ;  in 
front  of  them  lay  Brusa,  near  which  they  soon  dis- 
played again  their  valour  and  generalship  against  a 
combined  army  of  Greeks  and  Mongols.  Skilfully 
manoeuvring  a  body  of  light  horse  in  the  van  of  the 
battle,  Ertoghrul  contrived  so  to  mask  the  Sultan's 
main  attack  that  after  three  days  and  nights  of  sore 


10  THE   KING  S  FRONT. 

fighting  the  Seljuks  triumphed  over  their  adversaries 
and  drove  them  headlong  to  the  sea  coast.  This  de- 
fence of  the  Pass  of  Ermeni  brought  high  renown  to  the 
leader  of  the  Turks,  who  had  fought  all  through  the 
battle  in  front  of  the  Sultan's  guard,  and  Ertoghrul 
was  given  in  perpetuity  the  district  of  Eskishehr 
(the  Dorylaeum  of  the  ancients),  which,  in  memory  of 
'  his  foremost  position  in  the  engagement,  received  a 
new  name,  and  was  henceforth  known  as  Sultan(5ni, 
"  the  King's  Front,"  as  it  is  in  the  present  day. 

Sultanoni  was  a  precious  and  responsible  charge  to 
the  new-comers.  It  formed  the  barrier  between  the 
dominions  of  the  Christian  and  those  of  the  Moslem 
on  the  Bithynian  marches.  Hence  could  the  soldiers 
of  Islam  best  wage  the  Sacred  War  against  the  en- 
feebled outworks  of  the  Eastern  Empire.  The  vant- 
age ground  of  Sultanoni  furnished  the  Ottomans  with 
the  needful  ttoO  (ttco  whence  to  subdue  the  vast  em- 
pire which  long  owned  their  sway.  Pasturing  their 
herds  on  the  slopes  of  Ermeni  and  Temnos,  or  in  the 
plains  watered  by  the  Sakariya,  the  strangers  grew  in 
number,  wealth,  and  strength  ;  and  though  it  was 
not  at  once  nor  without  many  a  struggle  that  they 
imposed  their  authority  upon  the  semi-independent 
chiefs  of  the  district,  yet  they  were  already  masters 
in  name  of  a  rich  and  fertile  land  and  of  populous 
and  wealthy  cities  :  Eskishehr,  with  its  gardens  and 
vineyards,  its  baths  and  hostelrics  ;  Sugut,  Ertogh- 
rul's  capital,  where  his  grave  is  still  shown  ;  and  other 
strong  places,  besides  hamlets,  formed  part  of  the 
district  in  which  the  cradle  of  the  Ottoman  Empire 
was  first  securely  set. 


ROCK   MONASTERY,    ANATOLIA. 


'^ 


OTHMAN.  13 

At  Sugut  in  1258  was  born  Othrhan/  son  of  Erto- 
ghrul,  from  whom,  since  he  was  the  first  ruler  of  the 
line  who  ventured  to  assert  his  absolute  independence, 
his  descendants  took  the  name  of  Othmanlls,  or  as  we 
call  them ''  Ottomans."  it  was  their  special  and  proud 
title,  and  until  lately  they  never  degraded  themselves 
by  the  appellation  of  "  Turk?*  Othman  was  worthy 
to  be  the  eponymous  hero  of  a  warlike  race.  Long 
years  of  peace,  during  which  his  father  strengthened 
the  hold  of  the  clan  upon  the  province  entrusted  to 
his  rule,  gave  the  son  time  to  prepare  for  the  epoch 
of  conquest  which  crowned  his  later  years.  The  first 
important  event  in  Othman's  life  was  as  domestic  as 
it  was  natural  :  he  fell  in  love.  At  the  little  village 
of  Itburuni,  near  Eskishehr,  dwelt  a  learned  doctor 
of  the  law,  Edebali,  with  whom  Othman  loved  to 
converse,  not  the  less  because  the  good  man  had  a 
daughter  fair  to  see,  whom  some  called  Mai  Khatun, 
"  Lady  Treasure,"  and  others  Kamarlya,  "  Moon- 
bright,"  from  her  surpassing  beauty.  But  the  family 
of  Othman  was  as  yet  new  to  the  country,  and  its 
authority  was  not  recognized  by  the  surrounding 
chieftains  of  the  Anatolian  aristocracy.  Other 
young  men  of  higher  rank  might  bring  their  court 
to  the  fair  damsel,  and  her  father  discouraged 
the  suit  of  the  son  of  Ertoghrul.  At  last  he  was 
convinced  by  an  argument  which  has  ever  been 
potent  among  the  superstitious  peoples  of  the  East  . 
a  dream  dispelled  his  doubts.  One  night  Othman 
as  he  slumbered  thought  he  saw  himself  and  the  old 
man  his  host  stretched  upon  the   ground,  and  from 

*  Pronounced,  in  Turkish,  Osman. 


14  THE   KING'S   FRONT, 

Edebali's  breast  there  seemed  to  rise  a  moon,  which 
waxing  to  the  full,  approached  the  prostrate  form  of 
Othman    and    finally   sank    to    rest    in    his    bosom 
Thereat  from  out  his  loins  sprang  forth  a  tree,  which 
grew   taller    and    taller,    and    raised    its    head,    and 
spread  out  its  branches,  till  the  boughs  overshadowed 
the  earth  and  the  seas.     Under  the  canopy  of  leaves 
towered  four  mighty  mountains,  Caucasus  and  Atlas, 
Taurus  and   Haemus,  which  held  up  the  leafy  vault 
like  four  great  tent  poles,  and  from  their  sides  flowed 
royal  rivers,  Nile  and  Danube,  Tigris  and  Euphrates. 
Ships  sailed   upon  the  waters,  harvests   waved  upon 
the  fields,  the  rose  and  the  cypress,  flower  and  fruit, 
delighted   the   eye,    and    on    the   boughs   birds    sang 
their  glad  music.     Cities  raised  domes  and   minarets 
towards    the   green   canopy ;    temples    and    obelisks, 
towers  and  fortresses,  lifted  their  high  heads,  and  on 
their   pinnacles   shone   the   golden    Crescent.      And 
behold,  as  he  looked,  a  great  wind  arose  and  dashed 
the  Crescent  against  the  Crown  of  Constantine,  that 
imperial  city  which  stood  at  the  meeting  of  two  seas 
and  two  continents,  like  a  diamond  between  sapphires 
and  emeralds,  the  centre  jewel  of  the  ring  of  empire.^ 
Othman  was  about  to  place  the  dazzling  ring  upon 
his  finger,  when    he  awoke.       He  told  Mai  Khatun's 
father  what  he  had  seen,  and,  convinced  of  the  great 
future  that  was  thus  foretold  for  the  offspring  of  Oth- 
man and  the  Moon-faced  damsel,  Edebali  consented 
to  their  union.     Their  son  Orkhan  was  born  in  1288 
and    Ertoghrul  died   the  same  year,  leaving  Othman 
head  of  the  clan  and  lord  of  Eskishehr,  to  which  the 

*  Von  Hammer,  "Geschichte  des  Osmanischen  Keichs,"  i.  66-7. 


OTHMAN. 


15 


Seljuk  Sultan  added  in  1289  Karajahisar  (Melangeia). 
Othman's  first  care  was  to  build  a  mosque  at  Eski- 
shehr,  and  to  appoint  the  necessary  officers  for  the 
administration  of  the  law  and  the  performance  of  the 
ritual  of  Islam.  Firm  and  impartial  justice  formed 
the  forefront  of  his  policy,  and  largely  contributed 
to  the  spread  of  his  authority.  All  these  peaceful 
occupations,  however,  were  soon  set  aside  for  the 
fascinations  of  war.  There  had  been  a  time  when 
the  clansmen  were  content  to  feed  their  flocks  on  the 
hillside,  to  gather  their  honey  and  weave  their  carpets, 
and  lead  the  simple  unambitious  life  of  the  shep- 
herd ;  but  soon  they  left  these  familiar  paths  for  new 
and  daring  ascents.  One  by  one  they  reduced  the 
smaller  chieftains  of  the  province  to  obedience  ;  one 
after  the  other  they  captured  the  outlying  forts  of  the 
Greek  Empire,  till  their  power  extended  to  Yenishehr, 
and  they  were  thus  almost  within  sight  of  Brusa  and 
Nicaea,  the  two  chief  cities  of  the  Greeks  in  Asia. 
The  acquisition  of  so  important  a  situation  as 
Yenishehr  was  the  result  of  craft  outwitting  craft. 
A  wedding  at  Bilejik  in  1299  was  selected  as  a 
rendezvous  for  a  number  of  Othman's  rivals,  who 
plotted  to  capture  him  and  put  an  end  to  his  power. 
Warned  of  the  conspiracy,  forty  women  of  the  Otto- 
man clan  were  admitted  on  a  pretext  to  the  castle* 
where  preparations  were  being  made  for  the  wedding. 
When  both  garrison  and  guests  were  absorbed  in  the 
ceremonies,  the  forty  women  cast  away  their  disguise 
and  proved  to  be  none  other  than  forty  of  Othman's 
bravest  warriors.  They  speedily  possessed  them- 
selves of  the  fort  and  the  bride,  a   beautiful    young 


1 6  THE   king's   front, 

Greek  named  Nenuphar  ("Lotus-bloom  "),  afterwards 
the  mother  of  Murad  I.  Before  the  ruse  got  wind, 
Othman  swept  like  the  lightning  upon  Yarhisar, 
and  seized  it,  while  another  band  of  his  followers  took 
possession  of  Aynegol.  Thus  he  extended  the  dominion 
of  the  Ottomans  from  the  Ermeni  range  to  Mount 
Olympus.  The  Turk  now  set  his  capital  at  Yenishehr, 
which  he  used  as  a  stepping-stone  to  Brusa  and 
thence  eventually  to  Constantinople.  Even  with  this 
addition,  however,  the  Ottoman  territory  corresponded 
only  to  one  of  the  seventeen  sub-divisions  of  Rum, 
which  was  itself  but  one  of  the  twenty-five  provinces 
into  which  the  great  empire  of  Suleyman  the  Mag- 
nificent was  in  later  times  divided.^ 

More  than  half  a  century  had  passed  since  the 
Ottoman  Turks  first  settled  in  Sultanoni,  yet  their 
borders  were  still  narrow.  When  the  wave  of  advance 
was  once  undulating,  however,it  proceeded  with  accele- 
rated speed.  Like  the  circling  ripple  that  springs  up 
in  a  pool  when  a  stone  is  dropped  into  its  midst,  the 
sway  of  the  Turk  spread  in  ever- enlarging  rings. 
A  powerful  impulse  was  given  to  their  progress 
by  the  extinction  of  the  Seljuk  dynasty  at  the  end 
of  the  thirteenth  century.  Ten  several  states,  of 
which  Sultanoni  was  one,  succeeded  to  the  authority 
of  the  Seljuks  and  divided  their  territory  among 
them.  Henceforward  there  was  no  supreme  and 
sovereign  power  to  repress  the  ambitions  of  the 
Turks, — only  rivals  who  could  be  fought  and  subdued 
with  no  disloyalty  to  the  king  who  had  first  given 
them  a  hospitable  welcome  to  his  dominions.     All 

*  Von  Hammer,  i.  75. 


THE   SELJUKS  SUCCESSORS,  I9 

these  states  were  eventually  swallowed  up  in  the 
empire  of  the  House  of  Othman,  but  this  did  not 
happen  till  many  years  after  its  founder's  death. 
The  prince  of  Karaman  was  the  strongest  of  the  ten, 
and  many  long  wars  were  fought  with  him  before  his 
lands  were  annexed  to  the  Turkish  dominions.  In 
the  early  days  of  which  we  are  writing,  the  Kara- 
man  ian  state  was  too  powerful  for  the  Ottoman  to 
attempt  an  advance  in  this  direction  ;  and  the  chief 
extension  of  their  territory  in  the  beginning  of  the 
fourteenth  century  was  towards  Europe,  where  the 
feeble  representatives  of  the  once  mighty  Emperors  of 
the  East  offered  an  easy  prey  to  the  hardy  warriors  of 
Sultanoni.  From  his  stronghold  at  Yenishehr,  Oth- 
man sent  out  expeditions  against  the  nearest  Greek 
towns,  and  captured  many  fortresses  before  the  armies 
of  the  emperor  moved  out  against  him.  When  at 
length  he  met  the  Byzantine  army  at  Baphoeum,  he 
put  it  to  utter  rout  and  ravaged  the  whole  of  Bithynia, 
so  that  the  Greeks  dared  not  venture  outside  the  walls 
of  Nicaea.^  Encouraged  by  such  successes  Othman 
pushed  his  forces  nearer  the  sea,  and  emulated  the 
example  of  the  princes  of  Aydin  and  Saru-Khan, 
whose  fleets  had  ravaged  the  Greek  islands  and  thus 
inaugurated  the  terrible  scourge  of  the  Corsair. 
Gradually  he  hemmed  in  the  second  city  of  the 
empire,  Nicaea  ;  slowly  he  brought  up  his  armies 
against  Brusa,  and  erected  two  forts  over  against 
the  city,  whence  for  ten  years  he  pressed  the 
siege.  "  The  method  employed  by  the  Ottomans  to 
gain  possession  of  the  large,  populous,  and  well- 
'  Finlay,  ''History  of  Greece,"  iii.  387.     . 


20  THE   KING  S   FRONT. 

fortified  cities,  inhabited  by  the  wealthy  but  unwarHke 
Greeks,  was  not  unlike  that  employed  by  the  Dorians 
in  the  early  ages  of  Greece.  Indeed  it  is  almost  the 
only  way  by  which  the  courage  and  perseverance  of  a 
small  force  can  conquer  art  and  numbers.  Instead  of 
attempting  to  form  a  regular  blockade  of  the  city 
against  which  they  directed  their  operations,  and 
thereby  compelling  the  inhabitants  to  exert  all  their 
unbroken  power  to  deliver  themselves  from  the  attack, 
the  Ottoman  Turks  established  strong  posts  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  city,  ravaged  the  fields,  carried  off 
cattle  and  slaves,  and  interrupted  the  commercial 
communications  of  the  inhabitants.  The  devastation 
of  the  country  and  the  insecurity  of  the  roads  gradu- 
ally raised  the  price  of  provisions  and  caused  emigra- 
tion and  famine.  In  this  way  Nicaea,  the  cradle  of 
the  Greek  Church,  and  which  had  been  for  two  genera- 
tions the  capital  of  the  Greek  Empire,  was  closely  block- 
aded." ^  Meanwhile  Othman's  flying  cavalry  ravaged 
the  country  as  far  as  the  Bosphorus  and  Black  Sea : 
the  Emperor,  standing  on  the  towers  of  his  palace  at 
Constantinople,  could  see  the  flames  of  the  burning 
villages  across  the  Bosphorus  ;  the  Turk's  vessels 
[harried  the  coast  ;  the  whole  country  trembled  before 
yhis  unwearied  and  ubiquitous  onslaught.  He  had 
laid  his  plans  well,  and  the  ten  years  leaguer  of  Brusa 
produced  its  result.  The  great  city  capitulated  in 
JLS^§S  Orkhan  planted  the  Ottoman  flag  on  its  walls, 
and  hastened  to  Sugut  in  time  to  tell  the  good  news 
to  his  father.  Othman  lived  to  hear  of  the  victory, 
and  then  died  contented,  at  the  age  of  seventy,  after  a 

'  Finlay,  iii.  423-4. 


(l^- 


CONQUEST   OF  BRUSA.  23 

reign  of  twenty-six  years.  His  last  wish  was  to  be 
buried  at__Brusa,  the  new  capital  of  the  growing 
state  ;  and  thither  was  he  reverently  borne,  and  there 
did  his  sepulchre  stand  to  the  present  century.  His 
sword  is  still  preserved  at  Constantinople,  and  each 
successive  Sultan  of  his  posterity  is  solemnly  invested 
with  the  founder's  blade  by  way  of  coronation. 

The  Turks  with  reason  hold  Othman  to  be  their 
first  Sultan.  Ertoghrul  indeed  established  the  clan  in 
Asia  Minor,  but  he  did  not  achieve  independence  or 
raise  his  dignity  to  more  than  that  of  a  petty  prince. 
Othman  was  the  first  to  dream  of  empire,  and  though  he 
did  not  wholly  realize  his  dream,  and  view  the  proud 
city  of  Constantine  at  his  feet,  he  pushed  his  conquests 
to  the  very  verge  of  the  Hellespont,  set  his  son  upon  the 
throne  at  Brusa,  and  prepared  the  way  for  the  imme- 
diate conquest  of  Nicaea  and  Nicomedia  and  the  firm 
establishment  of  the  Turkish  sway  upon  the  shores  of 
the  Bosphorus  He  inaugurated  the  career  of  victory 
which  his  descendants  completed  ;  his  wars  against 
Greeks  and  Mongols,  and  the  Turkish  emirs  who  had 
succeeded  the  Seljuks,  set  an  example  which  his  son 
and  grandson  knew  how  to  follow ;  and  Othman's 
commanding  influence  was  felt  long  after  his  death. 

Personally,  like  the  first  Khalifs  of  the  Arabs,  he 
was  simple  and  primitive  in  his  tastes  and  habits. 
He  left  neither  silver  nor  gold  behind  him  ;  but  only 
a  salt-bowl — symbol  of  hospitality, — a  spoon,  a  braided 
coat  and  white  linen  turban,  his  standards,  a  fine 
stud  of  horses,  a  yoke  of  oxen,  and  some  flocks  of 
sheep,  whose  descendants  still  browse  upon  the 
pastures  of  Brusa.     Simple  as  was  his  dress,  his  figure 


24 


THE   KING'S   FRONT. 


was  imposing.  Like  Artaxerxes  "  Longimanus,"  his 
arms  reached  below  his  knees,  his  thighs  were  those 
of  a  horseman,  and  his  prominent  nose,  black  hair 
and  beard,  and  swarthy  hue,  procured  him  the  name 
of  "  Black  Othman,"  for  black  is  a  colour  of  honour 
in  the  East,  and  indicates  strength  of  character  as 
well  as  bodily  vigour  and  energy.  Black  Othman 
transmitted  his  physical  characteristics  to  several 
generations  of  his  successors,  and  for  at  least  three 
hundred  years  there  sat  no  Sultan  on  the  Ottoman 
throne  who  was  not  distinguished  for  personal  courage. 
Bravery  is  the  heritage  of  the  Turk. 


11. 

ACROSS  THE   HELLESPONT. 
(1326-I380.) 

When  Orkhan  came  to  the  throne,  one  of  the  chief 
stroTigholds  of  the  Greeks  in  Asia  had  fallen  :  the 
rest  were  not  slow  to  succumb  to  the  young  vigour  of 
the  Turks.  Nicomedia  followed  Brusa  in  the  same 
year  (1326).  The  Emperor  Andronicus  marched  in 
1329  against  the  invaders,  but  was  wounded,  and  his 
camp  at  Pelecanon  fell  into  the  hands  of  Orkhan  ; 
Hicaea  surrendered  in  1330,  and  in  1336  Pergamon, 
the  capital  of  Mysia,  was  taken  from  the  prince  of 
Karasi  and  added  to  the  Ottoman  realm.  The  people 
of  Nicaea  were  permitted  to  emigrate  and  take  with 
them  all  their  goods,  archives,  and  relics,  and  such 
moderation  greatly  strengthened  the  position  of  the 
conqueror.  The  little  clan  of  shepherds,  who  had  been 
graciously  permitted  to  settle  in  the  kingdom  of  the 
Seljuks,  had  now  possessed  themselves,  in  two  genera- 
tions, of  the  whole  of  the  north-west  corner  of  Asia 
Minor,  where  they  commanded  the  eastern  shore  of 
the  Bosphorus.  Here  for  the  moment  they  were 
content  to  rest.  The  Greek  emperor  was  glad  to 
make  peace,   and   the    Turks    were  anxious  to  gain 


26  ACROSS   THE  HELLESPONT, 

time  to  organize  their  new  dominions  and  prepare 
for  the  great  struggle  which  they  knew  was  before 
them. 

For  twenty  years  tranquility  reigned  undisturbed 
throughout  the  land  of  the  Turks,  and  during  these 
twenty  years  Orkhan  and  his  elder  brother  Ala-ud- 
din,  the  first  Turkish  Vezlr,i  laboured  at  the  orga- 
nization of  the  State  and  the  army.  The  insignia  of 
sovereignty  were  now  assumed  :  Orkhan  issued  money 
in  his  own  name  as  independent  Sultan.  But 
the  assumption  of  royal  dignity  could  be  but  an 
empty  form  unless  means  were  taken  to  defend  it 
against  the  hostile  forces  that  lay  all  around.  To 
this  end  Ala-ud-dln,  who  was  the  true  founder  of 
the  Ottoman  Empire  in  so  far  as  it  depended 
upon  military  organization,  began  to  reform  the 
army.  Instead  of  leading  their  mounted  followers 
in  the  old  manner  of  the  clan,  when  the  chief  sent 
messages  through  the  villages  to  summon  his  kindred 
and  liegemen  to  the  fight  (where  they  rode  in  a  serried 
wall,  without  infantry  support),  and  afterwards  let 
them  depart  to  their  homes,  the  Ottoman  Sultans  in 
future  would  have  permanent  regiments  to  trust  to — 
the  first  standing  army  of  modern  times.  Instead  of 
volunteers  there  was  now  to  be  a  paid  army.  This 
was  the  natural  result  of  the  change  which  had  taken 
place  in  the  Ottoman  State.  It  was  no  longer  aquestion 
of  leading  four  hundred  clansmen  to  battle  ;  the  Otto- 
mans now  included  a  vast  number  of  the  Seljuks  and 
•  other  Turkish  tribes,  who  yearly  flocked  from  a  dis- 

*  Vezir  means  "  burden  bearer,"  he  who  carries  the  burden  of  State 
aflfairs  :  hence,  Prime  Minister. 


THE   JANISSARIES,  27 

tance  to  their  standards  in  hope  of  victorious  spoil, 
or  from  a  knowledge  of  the  superior  order  and  security 
of  life  under  the  Ottoman  rule.  The  Ottomans  had 
already  become  a  very  mixed  race  ;  and  the  armies 
that  were  soon  to  subdue  a  large  part  of  Europe 
were  composed  chiefly  of  the  tribes  of  Asia  Minor, 
though  the  true  Ottomans  retained  the  high  com- 
mands and  formed  a  sort  of  aristocracy  at  the 
head.  To  organize  these  miscellaneous  followers, 
a  corps  of  regular  infantry,  called,  Piyade,  was  first 
embodied  and  well  paid,  and  given  lands  on  condition 
of  armed  service  and  repair  of  the  military  roads  ; 
then,  with  a  view  to  holding  these  in  check,  a  rival 
body  was  formed  by  enrolling  a  thousand  of  the  finest 
boys  from  among  the  families  of  the  Christians  con- 
quered in  the  campaigns  against  the  Greeks.  Every 
year  for  three  centuries  a  thousand  'Christian  chil- 
dren were  thus  devoted  to  the  service  of  the  Otto- 
man power ;  when  there  were  not  enough  prisoners 
captured  during  the  year,  the  number  was  made  up 
from  the  Christian  subjects  of  the  Sultan  ;  but  after 
1648  the  children  of  the  soldiers  themselves  were 
drawn  upon  to  recruit  the  force. 

Thus  was  formed  the  famous  corps  of  the  Janis- 
saries, or  "  New  Troops,"  which  for  centuries  con- 
stituted the  flower  of  the  Ottoman  armies,  and  even- 
tually obtained  such  preponderating  influence  in 
the  state,  and  abused  it  so  wantonly,  that  they  had 
to  be  summarily  exterminated  in  the  present  century 
by  Sultan  Mahmud  II.  The  children  who  were  taken 
from  their  parents  to  be  enrolled  as  Janissaries  were 
generally  quite  young  ;  they  were  of  course  compelled 


28  ACROSS   THE   HELLESPONT. 

to  become  Moslems,  and  their  training  for  a  life  of 
arms  was  carefully  regulated.  Their  discipline  was 
severe,  and  fortitude  and  endurance  were  inculcated 
with  Spartan  rigour  ;  but  zeal  and  aptitude  were  in- 
variably rewarded,  and  the  Janissaries  were  sure  of 
rapid  promotion  and  royal  favour.  "  Cut  off  from 
all  ties  of  country,  kith,  and  kin,  but  with  high  pay 
and  privileges,  with  ample  opportunities  for  military 
advancement,  and  for  the  gratification  of  the  violent, 
the  sensual,  and  the  sordid,  passions  of  their  animal 
natures  amid  the  customary  atrocities  of  successful 
warfare,  this  military  brotherhood  grew  up  to  be  the 
strongest  and  fiercest  instrument  of  imperial  ambition, 
which  remorseless  fanaticism,  prompted  by  the  most 
subtle  statecraft,  ever  devised  upon  earth."  ^ 

Orkhan  led  his  thousand  boys  before  a  saintly 
dervish,  and  asked  him  to  bless  them,  and  give  them 
a  name  ;  whereupon  Hajji  Bektash  flung  the  sleeve  of 
his  robe  over  the  head  of  the  leading  youth  and  said 
"  Be  the  name  of  this  new  host  Ye/ii  Cheri.  May  God 
the  Lord  make  their  faces  white,  their  arms  strong, 
their  swords  keen,  their  arrows  deadly,  and  give  them 
the  victory  !  "  This  is  the  origin  of  the  white  woollen 
dervish's  cap,  with  the  sleeve-like  pendant  behind,  which 
always  formed  part  of  the  uniform  of  the  Janissaries. 
.  Besides  the  Piyade  and  Janissaries,  the  Ottoman 
army  included  a  body  of  irregular  light  infantry,  who 
were  employed  as  skirmishers,  and  used  to  receive  the 
nrst  fury  of  the  enemy,  before  the  Janissaries  were 

/ordered  to  advance  over  their  bodies  to  the  attack  ; 

I  and  also  six  squadrons  of  Horse  Guards,  numbering  at 

*  Sir  E.  Creasy,  "  History  of  the  Ottoman  Turks,"  15. 


I 


THE   SI  PAH  IS,  31 

first  2,400,  but  afterwards  many  more.  One  of  these 
squadrons  received  the  well-known  name  of  Sipahis, 
which  is  the  same  word  as  the  Indian  "sepoys." 
The  feudal  system  was  extended  to  the  cavalry  ;  some 
cohorts  were  settled  on  lands  which  they  held  on 
condition  of  military  service.  There  was  also  a  corps 
of  irregular  cavalry,  called  Akinji,  or  Raiders,  who 
were  unpaid,  and  depended  for  their  living  on  plunder 
and  booty.  , 

At  the  head  of  an  army  such  as  this,  well  disci- 
plined, highly  paid,  and  devoted  to  a  sovereign  who 
knew  how  to  lead  them  where  honours  and  rewards 
were  to  be  won,  Orkhan  was  now  able  to  survey  the 
kingdoms  around  him,  and  to  weigh  the  chances  of 
the  coming  struggle.  Behind  were  the  small  but  not 
yet  innocuous  states  which  had  sprung  up  on  the 
decay  of  the  Seljuk  power  ;  they  were  Turks,  and 
therefore,  in  some  sort,  kinsmen ;  they  were  good 
fighters,  and,  above  all,  they  were  poor.  The  Sultan 
was  not  attracted  by  the  prospect  of  conquest  without 
spoils,  nor  was  it  until  many  years  later  that  Bayezld 
made  a  sweep  of  the  petty  principalities  of  Asia 
Minor.  A  much  more  valuable  prize  lay  in  front.  The 
wealthy  provinces  of  the  Byzantine  Empire,  already 
falling  to  pieces,  divided  by  strife  among  their  rulers, 
were  before  Orkhan's  eyes.  As  he  stood  on  the  shore 
of  the  Bosphorus  he  could  see  the  domes  and  palaces 
of  Constantinople.  This  was  a  quarry  well  worthy  of 
pursuit,  and  the  Ottoman  directed  his  first  attack 
against  the  effete  empire  of  the  Palaeologi. 

He  had  already  prepared  the  way  by  moral  force. 
The  firm  and  equitable  government  of  the  Turk  had 


32  ACROSS   THE   HELLESPONT, 

produced  a  strong  impression  upon  the  Greeks  of 
Asia,  who  found  themselves  better  off,  more  Hghtly 
taxed,  and  far  more  efficiently  protected,  than  they 
had  been  under  the  rule  of  the  Byzantine  emperor, 
whose  persistent  and  perfidious  intrigues,  joined  to 
the  insensate  jealousies  of  the  nobles,  and  the  demands 
of  such  foreign  mercenaries  as  Roger  de  Flor  and  his 
Catalans,  put  any  approach  to  good  and  impartial 
government  out  of  the  question.  The  civil  wars  be- 
tween the  rival  emperors  had  reduced  the  empire 
to  a  mere  shadow  of  its  former  extent.  "  Many 
provinces  were  lost  for  ever,  and  the  Greek  race 
was  expelled  from  many  districts.  The  property 
of  the  Greeks  was  plundered,  their  landed  estates 
were  confiscated,  and  even  their  families  were  often 
reduced  to  slavery.  .  .  .  The  landed  property  and  the 
military  power,  with  the  social  influence  they  con- 
ferred, passed  into  the  hands  of  the  Serbians,  the 
Albanians,  the  Genoese,  and  the  Ottoman  Turks  ; 
and  after  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century  we 
find  foreign  names  occupying  an  important  place  in 
the  history  of  Macedonia,  Epirus,  and  Greece,  and 
Serbian  and  Albanian  chiefs  attaining  a  position  of 
almost  entire  independence.  ...  In  Asia  the  empire 
retained  little  more  than  Skutari  and  a  few  forts  ;  in 
Thrace,  it  was  bounded  by  a  line  drawn  from  the 
Gulf  of  Burgas  carried  north  of  Adrianople  to  Cavala 
on  the  Aegean  ;  in  Macedonia,  it  retained  Thessa- 
lonica  and  the  adjoining  peninsulas,  but  the  Serbians 
completely  hemmed  in  this  fragment  on  the  land  side  ; 
it  also  held  portions  of  Thessaly  and  Epirus,  and  the 
Peloponnesus.     The  remaining  fragments  of  the  em- 


THE  BYZANTINE  E'MPmE.^^^  33 


pire  consisted  of  a  few  islands  in  "the  Aegean  Sea 
which  had  escaped  the  domination  of  the  Venetians 
the  Genoese,  and  the  Knights  of  St.  John  ;  and  of  the 
cities  of  Philadelphia  and  Phocaea,  which  still  recog- 
nized the  suzerainty  of  Constantinople,  though  sur- 
rounded by  the  territories  of  the  emirs  of  A)^din  and 
Saru-Khan.  Such  were  the  relics  of  the  Byzantine 
Empire,  which  were  now  burdened  with  the  main- 
tenance of  two  emperors,  three  empresses,  and  an 
augmented  list  of  despots,  sebastocrators,  and  salaried 
courtiers."  ^ 

In  all  these  twenty  years  of  peace  there  had  been 
a  fri-endly  understanding  between  Orkhan  and  the 
Emperors  Andronicus  and  Cantacuzenus,and  the  latter 
had — with  that  curious  contempt  for  the  decencies 
of  family  relations  which  characterized  the  Christians 
during  the  whole  period  of  Ottoman  triumph  — 
given  his  daughter  Theodora  in  marriage  to  the 
sexagenarian  Moslem,  despite  the  differences  of 
creed  and  age.  Cantacuzenus  and  Anne  the  Em- 
press-Regent stopped  at  nothing  to  conciliate  the 
Ottoman  Sultan  and  win  his  aid  in  their  domestic 
struggles.  Their  usual  fee  was  to  allow  the  Turk  to 
ravage  one  of  their  provinces,  and  carry  off  into 
slavery  as  many  Christians  as  he  pleased.  Ducas  the 
historian  says  that  the  empress  purchased  Orkhan's 
assistance  by  allowing  him  to  transport  Christians 
to  Skutari  for  sale  in  Asia,  "  thus  rendering  the 
Asiatic  suburb  of  Constantinople  the  principal  depot 
of  the  trade  in  Greek  slaves."  ^  Orkhan  visited  his 
father-in-law  at  this  convenient  mart,  which  still  be- 

»  Finlay,  iii.  446  8.  ^  Ibid.,  iii.  443.  • 


34  ACROSS    THE  HELLESPONT. 

longed  to  the  emperor,  and  there  seemed  little  prospect 
of  a  rupture  in  their  amity. 

An  opportunity  however  occurred  very  soon.     The 
struggle  which  was  then  going  on  between  the  two 
great  maritime  powers  of  the  Mediterranean,  the  Vene- 
tians and  the  Genoese,  found  a  frequent  meeting-place 
on    the   Bosphorus,  where   the  latter  held  Galata,  a 
suburb  of  Constantinople.     The  Venetians,  who  were 
destined  for  centuries  to  be  the  most  determined  foes 
of  the  Turks,  had  already  aroused  Orkhan's  anger,  and 
he  lost  no  time  in  giving  his  support  to  their  rivals. 
Out  of  this  alliance  came  the  first  entrance  of  the  Turk 
upon  European  soil.    Suleyman  Pasha,  Orkhan's  eldest 
son,  who  had  already  operated  with  success   in  the 
Balkan  provinces,  crossed  the  Hellespont  on  a  couple 
of  rafts,  with  eighty  followers,  and  surprized  the  castle 
of  Tzympe.     In  a  few  days  it  was  garrisoned  by  three 
thousand  Ottoman  soldiers.  Cantacuzenus  was  too  busy 
with  the  hostility  of  his  son-in-law,  John  Palaeologus, 
to  resist  this  unprovoked  invasion  ;  he  even  sought  the 
assistance  of  the  Sultan  against  his  rival.   More  Turks 
were  accordingly  sent  over  to  reinforce   Suleyman's 
command  ;  Palaeologus  was  beaten  ;  but  the  Ottomans 
had  won  their  foothold  in  Europe.     In  1358  an  earth- 
quake overthrew  the  cities  of  Thrace  ;  houses  crumbled 
to  the  ground,  and  even  the  walls  and  fortifications  fell 
upon  the  trembling  earth,  while  the  terrified  inhabi- 
tants fled  from  their  shaking  homes.    Among  the  rest, 
the  walls  around  Gallipoli  fell  down,  the  people  de- 
serted the  city,  and  over  the  ruins  the  Turks  marched 
in.    The  Emperor  in  vain  protested  ;  Orkhan  declared 
that  Providence  had  opened  the  city  to  his  troops,  and 


DEATH  OF  ORKHAN.  35 

he  could  not  disregard  so  clear  an  instance  of  divine 
interposition.  The  civil  war  which  still  raged  left 
Cantacuzenus  small  leisure  for  attending  to  anything 
but  the  attacks  of  Palaeologus.  The  shore  of  the 
Hellespont  was  quickly  garrisoned  with  Ottoman 
soldiers,  and  the  first  fatal  step  had  been  permitted 
which  led  to  the  conquest  of  the  empire,  and  the 
perpetual  menace  of  Europe  for  several  centuries. 

Orkhan  died  in  1359.  He  had  lived  to  carry  his 
arms  to  the  confines  of  Asia  Minor,  and  had  even 
seen  his  horse-tails  flying  on  the  western  shores  of 
the  Hellespont.  His  son  Murad  I.,^  who  succeeded 
him  (for  Suleyman,  the  elder  brother,  had  died  before 
his  father),  was  to  lead  the  Ottoman  armies  as  far  as 
the  Danube. 

A  native  satirist  said  of  the  Greeks  :  "  They  are 
formed  of  three  parts :  their  tongue  speaks  one  thing, 
their  mind  meditates  another,  and  their  actions  accord 
with  neither."  Had  there  been  but  the  Greek  Empire 
to  subdue,  it  is  possible  that  the  fourteenth  century 
might  have  seen  the  fall  of  Constantinople.  Adrian- 
ople  (1361)  and  soon  after,  Philippopolis  succumbed 
upon  the  onslaught  of  Murad,  and  Macedonia  and 
Thrace,  or  the  modern  Rumelia,  were  now  Ottoman 
provinces.  The  Republic  of  Ragusa  concluded  a  com- 
mercial treaty  with  the  Ottomans  in  1365,  by  which  it 
placed  itself  under  their  protection  ;  and  it  is  said  that 
Murad  signed  the  treaty,  for  lack  of  a  pen,  with  his 
open  hand,  over  which  he  had  smeared  some  ink,  in 

'  Murad  is  often  written  Amurath  by  Europeans.  So  Bayezid 
(Bajazet),  Suleyman  (Soliman),  Mohammed  (Mahomet),  &c.  We 
have  retained  the  correct  spelling. 


36  ACROSS   THE  HELLESPONT. 

the  manner  of  Eastern  seals.  This  veritable  sign- 
manual  is  believed  to  be  the  origin  of  the  tiighra  or 
Sultan's  cipher,  which  has  ever  since  appeared  on  the 
coinage  and  the  official  documents  of  the  Turks. 

But  the  Sultan  had  other  foes  to  reckon  with 
besides  worn-out  imperialists  and  time-serving  re- 
publics. To  say  nothing  of  danger  from  behind,  in 
Asia,  there  was  a  belt  of  warlike  peoples  beyond  the 
Balkan,  who  were  made  of  very  different  stuff  from 
the  emasculate  Greeks.  Behind  the  empire  were 
ranged  the  vigorous  young  Slavonic  races  of  Serbia 
and  Bosnia,  the  Bulgarians,  and  the  Vlachs,  with 
their  traditions  of  Roman  descent,  the  Skipitars  of 
Albania,  a  hardy  race  of  mountaineers,  and,  above 
all,  the  Magyars  of  Hungary,  who,  with  their  neigh- 
bours the  Poles,  formed  for  three  centuries  the  chief 
bulwark  of  Christendom  against  the  swelling  tide  of 
Mohammedan  invasion.  In  1364  the  first  encounter 
between  the  northern  Christians  and  the  invaders 
took  place  on  the  banks  of  the  Maritza,  near  Adria- 
nople,  whither  Louis  I.,  King  of  Hungary  and  Poland, 
and  the  princes  of  Bosnia,  Serbia,  and  Wallachia, 
pushed  forward  to  put  an  end  once  for  all  to  the  rule 
of  the  Ottoman  in  Europe.  Lala  Shahln,  Murad's 
commander  in  chief,  could  not  muster  more  than 
half  the  number  of  troops  that  the  Christians  brought 
against  him  ;  but  he  took  advantage  of  the  state  of 
drunken  revelry  in  which  the  too  confident  enemy 
was  plunged  to  make  a  sudden  night  attack,  and 
the  army  of  Hungary,  heavy  with  sleep  after  its 
riotous  festivities,  was  suddenly  aroused  by  the  beat- 
ing of  the  Turkish  drums  and  the  shrill  music  of  their 


BATTLE   OF   THE   MARITZA, 


39 


fifes.  The  Ottomans  were  upon  them  before  they 
could  stand  to  arms.  "They  were  like  wild  beasts 
scared  from  their  lair,"  says  the  Turkish  historian, 
Sa'd-ud-din  ;  "speeding  from  the  field  of  fight  to  the 
waste  of  flight,  those  abjects  poured  into  the  stream 
Maritza  and  were  drowned."  To  this  day  the  spot  is 
called  Sirf  Sindughi,  "  Serbs'  rout." 

For  the  present  the  Turks  were  satisfied  with  re- 
pelling the  enemy  ;  but  before  long  they  resolved 
upon  carrying  the  war  into  the  territories  of  their 
foes.  Thus  far  the  Ottomans  had  only  possessed 
themselves  of  less  than  a  quarter  of  modern  Turkey. 
Leaving  Albania  for  the  present  out  of  the  question, 
we  may  compare  the  eastern  and  greater  part  of 
Turkey  in  Europe  to  a  flag  bearing  a  St.  George's 
cross.  From  east  to  west,  the  range  of  Haemus,  or 
the  Balkan,  divides  it  into  two  well-marked  divisions, 
and  the  arms  which  these  mountains  stretch  forth 
to  the  north  and  south  complete  the  cross.  Of 
the  two  upper  quarters,  that  to  the  west  was  an- 
ciently known  as  Upper  Moesia,  and  had  become  the 
kingdoms  of  Serbia  and  Bosnia  ;  that  to  the  east  was 
Lower  Moesia,  or  Bulgaria.  The  lower  squares  repre- 
sent Thrace  and  Macedonia,  and  together  form  what 
was  known  as  Rumelia.  Of  these  four  portions,  the 
Ottomans  so  far  possessed  only  the  south-eastern,  or 
Thrace,  the  whole  of  which,  with  the  exception  of  the 
country  immediately  surrounding  Constantinople,  now 
owned  their  sway.  In  1373,  however,  by  the  capture  of 
Cavala,  Serez,  and  other  places,  they  annexed  most 
of  Macedonia,  and  pushed  their  frontier  almost  up 
to  the  great  mountain  range  which  divides  Rumelia 


40  ACROSS    THE   HELLESPONT. 

from  Albania.  Two  of  the  four  quarters  of  the  square 
had  thus  been  subdued,  and  in  1375  the  Ottoman 
armies  marched  north  to  reduce  the  rest  Crossing 
the  Balkan  they  took  Nissa,  the  birthplace  of  Con- 
stantine  the  Great  and  one  of  the  strongest  fortresses 
of  the  Byzantine  Empire.  After  a  siege  of  twenty-five 
days  the  city  capitulated,  and  the  Despot  of  Servia, 
attacked  in  the  heart  of  his  kingdom,  obtained  peace 
on  condition  of  his  paying  an  annual  tribute  of  a 
thousand  pounds  of  silver,  and  furnishing  a  thousand 
horsemen  to  the  Ottoman  armies.  The  Krai  of  Bul- 
garia did  not  wait  to  be  conquered,  but  humbly  begged 
for  mercy,  which  was  granted  on  his  paying,  not  tri- 
bute, but  what  he  preferred  —  his  daughter.  Thus 
was  the  greater  part  of  the  two  northern  quarters 
made  tributary  to  the  Sultan.  The  Greek  Emperor, 
who  had  not  scrupled  to  become  a  convert  to  the 
Latin  Church  in  order  (as  he  vainly  hoped)  to  secure 
the  aid  of  the  Pope  and  the  Catholic  Powers,  finding 
the  Ottomans  irresistible,  declared  himself  a  vassal  of 
Murad. 

At  the  same  time  a  further  addition  was  made, 
in  a  peaceful  manner,  to  the  Ottoman  dominions  in 
Asia.  Murad  seized  the  opportunity  of  a  period  of 
tranquility  to  solemnize  the  marriage  of  his  son 
Bayezld  with  the  daughter  of  the  prince  of  Kermiyan, 
one  of  the  ten  states  that  had  grown  out  of  the 
Seljuk  kingdom.  The  bride  brought  the  greater  part 
of  her  father's  dominions  as  a  dowry  to  the  young 
Turk,  and  the  province  of  Kermiyan  with  its  chief  cities 
was  thus  peacefully  added  to  the  Ottoman  Empire. 
The  wedding  was  celebrated  at  Brusa  with  the  utmost 


ACQUISITIONS  IN  ASIA.  4 1 

pomp.  Representatives  came  from  the  remainder  of 
the  Ten  States,  the  lords  of  Aydin,  of  Kastamuni,  of 
Mentesha,  and  Karaman,  and  the  rest ;  and  am- 
bassadors arrived  from  the  Sultan  of  Egypt.  They 
brought  Arab  steeds,  Greek  slave-girls,  and  the  won- 
derful silk  stuffs  of  Alexandria.  Gold  plates  filled  with 
gold  coins,  silver  dishes  full  of  silver  coins,  jewelled 
cups  and  basins,  were  among  the  presents,  all  of 
which  were  given  away  by  the  Sultan  to  his  guests. 
The  keys  of  the  castles  of  Kermiyan,  however,  he 
accepted  from  the  bride,  and  with  these  he  did  not 
part.  At  the  same  time  Murad  purchased  from  its 
ruler  the  territory  of  Hamid,  with  its  cities  of 
Akshehr,  Begshehri,  and  others,  and  thus  united 
under  his  rule  four  out  of  the  ten  Seljukian  states. 
Sultanoni,  Karasi,  Kermiyan,  and  Hamid  now  formed 
part  of  the  Ottoman  territory  ;  and  ten  years  later 
BayezTd  overran  the  whole  of  the  remaining  states 
and  reduced  the  entire  kingdom  of  the  Seljuks. 


Ill, 

KOSOVO  AND  NICOPOLIS. 
(1 380-1402.) 

Meanwhile  the  yearly  drain  of  the  Christians 
to  recruit  the  corps  of  the  janissaries  was  exciting 
the  anger  of  the  princes  of  the  north.  The  Turks 
had  indeed  reached  the  Danube  ;  but  they  were  not 
to  remain  undisturbed  in  their  wide  dominion.  The 
Slavs  were  not  yet  subdued.  They  determined  on 
another  effort  to  expel  the  enemy  from  Europe. 
Serbia,  Bosnia,  and  Bulgaria  led  the  crusade ;  Al- 
bania, Wallachia,  Hungary  joined  ;  Poland  sent  her 
contingent.  The  rest  of  Europe  was  too  closely 
occupied  with  its  own  affairs,  or  too  much  a  prey  to 
ignoble  rulers,  to  spare  any  interest  for  the  struggle 
that  was  going  on  in  the  Balkan  Peninsula.  Still 
the  confederates  were  able  to  muster  a  formidable 
array,  and  their  first  move  was  a  success.  They  fell 
upon  an  Ottoman  army  in  Bosnia  in  1388,  and 
killed  three-fourths  of  its  twenty  thousand  men. 
Murad  was  not  disposed  to  sit  still  under  this  affront, 
and  his  general,  All  Pasha,  forthwith  crossed  the 
Balkan  by  the  Derbend  Pass,  descended  upon 
Shumla,  seized  Tirnova,  and  brought  Sisvan  the  Krai 


BATTLE   OF  KOSOVO. 


43 


of  Bulgaria  to  his  knees.  Besieged  in  Nicopolis,  the 
prince  surrendered,  and  Bulgaria  was  immediately 
annexed  to  the  Ottoman  Empire,  of  which  the  Danube 
now  formed  the  northern  frontier. 

Lazarus  the  Serbian,  though  deprived  of  his  Bulgarian 
ally,  was  not  yet  daunted.  He  challenged  Murad  to 
battle,  and  the  opposing  forces  met  (1389)  on  the  plain 
of  Kosovo  by  the  banks  of  the  river  Shinitza.  Serbs, 
Bosnians,  Skipitars,  Poles,  Magyars,  and  Vlachs  were 
massed  on  the  north  side  of  the  stream  ;  on  the 
south  were  the  Ottomans  under  Murad  himself,  sup- 
ported by  his  vassals  and  allies  of  Europe  and  Asia. 
The  Sultan  spent  the  night  before  the  battle  in 
prayer  for  the  help  of  God  and  a  martyr's  death, 
for  like  all  true  Moslems  he  coveted  the  crowning 
glory  of  dying  in  fight  with  the  Infidels  ;  and  in  the 
morning  he  saw  an  answer  to  his  petitions  in  the 
rain  which  laid  the  clouds  of  dust  that  were  driving 
blindingly  in  the  faces  of  the  Turkish  troops.  When 
the  sky  cleared,  the  two  armies  came  forward  and 
were  drawn  up  in  battle  array.  Lazarus  commanded 
the  centre  of  the  Christian  line,  his  nephew  Vuk 
Brankovich  the  right,  and  Tvarko  the  king  of 
Bosnia  the  left.  On  the  Turkish  side,  Murad  himself 
was  in  the  centre,  his  sons  BayezTd  and  Ya'kub  com- 
manded the  right  and  left  wings,  and  Haydar  ranged 
his  artillery  on  the  brow  of  the  hill  behind  the  main 
body.  The  battle  was  long  and  obstinately  con- 
tested ;  at  one  time  the  left  wing  of  the  Turks 
wavered,  but  its  courage  was  restored  by  the  charge 
of  Bayezid,  whose  rapidity  of  action  had  earned  him 
the   name   of    Yildiriin,    "Thunderbolt"     He  raged 


44  KOSOVO   AND   NICOPOLIS. 

through  the  ranks  of  the  enemy,  brandishing  a 
mighty  iron  mace,  and  felling  all  who  came  in  his 
way.  With  such  fury  did  he  renew  the  fight,  that  the 
"  Turks,  which  before  as  men  discouraged  fled  in  the 
left  wing,  began  now  to  turn  again  upon  their 
enemies  ;  and  the  Christians,  having  as  they  thought 
already  got  the  victory,  were  to  begin  a  great  battle. 
In  which  bloody  fight  many  thousands  fell  on  both 
sides  ;  the  brightness  of  the  armour  and  weapons 
was  as  it  had  been  the  lightning  ;  the  multitude  of 
lances  and  other  horsemen's  staves  shadowed  the  light 
of  the  sun ;  arrows  and  darts  fell  so  fast  that  a 
man  would  have  thought  they  had  poured  down 
from  heaven  ;  the  noise  of  the  instruments  of  war, 
with  the  neighing  of  horses  and  the  outcries  of  men, 
were  so  terrible  and  great,  that  the  wild  beasts  of 
the  mountain  stood  astonied  therewith  ;  and  the 
Turkish  histories,  to  express  the  terror  of  the  day, 
vainly  say  that  the  angels  in  heaven,  amazed  with 
that  hideous  noise,  for  that  time  forgot  the  heavenly 
hymns  wherewith  they  always  glorify  God.  About 
noontide  of  the  day,  the  fortune  of  the  Turks  prevailing, 
the  Christians  began  to  give  ground,  and  at  length 
betook  themselves  to  plain  flight :  whom  the  Turks 
with  all  their  force  pursued  and  slew  them  down- 
right, without  number  or  mercy."  ^  The  field,  says 
the  Turkish  chronicler,  was  like  a  tulip  bed,  with  its 
ruddy  severed  heads  and  rolling  turbans. 

But  the  battle  was  not  to  end  without  an  irreparable 
loss  to  the  Turks.  Milosh  Kobilovich,  a  Serbian 
warrior,  made  his  way  to  the  Sultan's  presence,  on 

*  Knolles  and  Rycaut,  *'  The  Turkish  History,"  i,  138. 


ASSASSINATION  OF  MURAD  I.  45 

pretext  of  important  tidings  to  be  communicated 
to  his  private  ear  ;  and,  when  he  was  brought  before 
him,  suddenly  plunged  his  dagger  into  the  Sultan's 
body.  The  assassin  was  hewn  to  pieces  by  the 
guard ;  but  his  work  had  been  effectual.  Murad 
died  in  his  tent,  after  ordering  the  charge  of  his 
reserve  which  completed  the  victory.  With  his 
dying  voice  he  ordained  the  execution  of  Lazarus 
the  Serbian  king,  who  had  been  made  a  prisoner. 
Milosh  Kobilovich,  for  this  treacherous  assassina- 
tion, has  ever  since  been  regarded  as  a  Serbian  hero. 
As  with  Harmodius  and  Aristogiton  in  ancient  Greece, 
and  Charlotte  Corday  in  modern  France,  the  igno- 
miny of  betrayal  has  been  absolved  by  posterity  in 
consideration  of  the  utility  of  the  result.  An  assassin 
thus  becomes  a  sort  of  inverted  hero. 

In  consequence  of  this  misfortune,  a  rule  has  ever 
since  been  prescribed  in  Ottoman  etiquette  that  no 
stranger  shall  be  presented  to  the  Sultan  save  led 
by  two  courtiers,  who  hold  him  by  the  arms,  and 
thus  prevent  any  treacherous  attempt.  The  precau- 
tion is  no  longer  insisted  on  ;  but  even  in  the  present 
century  foreign  ambassadors  were  not  permitted 
to  approach  the  Sultan  too  closely. 
\  "  This  [Murad  or]  Amurath  was  in  his  superstition 
tnore  zealous  than  any  other  of  the  Turkish  kings  ;  a 
man  of  great  courage,  and  in  all  his  attempts  fortu- 
nate ;  he  made  greater  slaughter  of  his  enemies  than 
both  his  father  and  grandfather  ;  his  kingdom  in 
Asia  he  greatly  enlarged  by  the  sword,  marriage,  and 
purchase  ;  and,  using  the  discord  and  cowardice  of 
the  Grecian  princes  to  his  profit,  subdued   a   great 


46  KOSOVO  AND  NICOPOLIS, 

part  of  Thracia,  called  Rumania,  with  the  territories 
thereto  adjoining,  leaving  unto  the  Emperor  of  Con- 
stantinople little  or  nothing  more  in  Thracia  than 
the  imperial  city  itself,  with  the  bare  name  of  an 
emperor  almost  without  an  empire  ;  he  won  a  great 
part  of  Bulgaria  and  entered  into  Serbia,  Bosnia, 
and  Macedonia  ;  he  was  liberal  and  withal  severe, 
of  his  subjects  both  beloved  and  feared,  a  n\an  of 
very  few  words  and  one  that  could  dissemble  deeply. 
He  was  slain  when  he  was  three  score  and  eight 
years  old  and  had  therefore  reigned  thirty-one,  in 
the  year  of  our  Lord  [1389].  His  dead  body  was 
by  Bajazet  conveyed  into  Asia,  and  there  royally 
buried  at  Brusa  in  a  fair  chapel  at  the  west  end  of 
the  city,  near  unto  the  baths  there,  where  upon  his 
tomb  lieth  his  soldier's  cloak,  with  a  little  Turkish 
tulipant,  much  differing  from  those  great  turbans 
which  the  Turks  now  wear.  Near  unto  ^he  same 
tomb  are  placed  three  lances  with  three  horse-tails 
fastened  at  the  upper  end  of  them,  which  he  used 
as  guidons  in  his  wars."  ^  On  the  plain  of  Kosovo 
three  stones  still  mark  the  spots  where  Milosh 
Kobilovich  thrice  freed  himself  from  the  onslaught 
of  the  encircling  guard,  and  a  chapel  shows  the  place 
where  Murad  fell. 

On  the  battle-field,  BayezTd,  the  "  Bajazet "  of  old 
Knolles,  was  saluted  Sultan  by  the  army ;  and  in  sight 
of  the  dead  body  of  his  father,  the  new  ruler  imme- 
diately slew  his  brother  Ya'kub,  who  had  fought 
gallantly  throughout  the  day.  The  murder  of  their 
brothers   was    henceforward    to   be    a    principle    of 

*  Knolles,  i.  p.  139. 


BAYEZID  I.  49 

Ottoman  succession.  Murad  himself  had  cruelly  put 
to  death  his  son  Saveji,  when  he  rebelled  against  him  ; 
and  Bayezld  was  equally  determined  to  have  no  rivals 
to  disturb  his  state.  "  Sedition  is  worse  than  slaughter/' 
says  the  Koran,  and  acting  on  that  adage  the  Sultansi 
of  Turkey  for  centuries  provided  against  revolution \ 
by  putting  out  of  the  way  every  male  heir  who  could 
possibly  be  a  candidate  for  the  throne.  The  custom 
was  barbarous  enough,  but  it  at  least  procured  the 
desired  result ;  and  for  five  hundred  years  the  Otto- 
man Empire  has  suffered  little  from  civil  strife  among 
relations. 

BayezTd  soon  brought  the  Serbian  war  to  a  close.  His 
armies  pushed  on  to  Vidin,  and,  turning  south,  took 
Karatova  with  its  valuable  silver  mines,  and  placed  a 
Turkish  colony  in  Uskub.  Stephen,  the  son  of  Lazarus, 
was  eager  to  conclude  peace,  and  a  treaty  was  arranged 
by  which  the  Serbian  king  agreed,  as  vassal  of  the 
Ottoman,  to  furnish  a  contingent  to  his  wars,  to  give 
his  sister  to  wife  to  the  Sultan,  and  to  pay  a  yearly 
tribute  from  the  proceeds  of  the  silver  mines.  The 
Lady  Despina  soon  came  to  exercise  a  great  influence 
over  her  Turkish  husband  :  "  Of  all  his  wives  he  held 
her  dearest,  and  for  her  sake  restored  to  her  brother 
Stephen  the  city  and  castle  of  Semendria  and  Colum- 
barium in  Serbia  ;  she  allured  him  to  drink  wine, 
forbidden  the  Turks  by  their  law,  and  caused  him  to 
delight  in  sumptuous  banquets,  which  his  predecessors 
never  did."  ^ 

Serbia   was   now   no  longer  exposed   to  Ottoman 
incursions ;  but  there  was  not  yet  peace  on  the  Danube, 
'  Knolles,  i,  143. 


'^ 


50  KOSOVO  AND  NICOPOLIS, 

In  the  following  year,  Bayezid  overran  Wallachia,  and 
its  prince,  Myrche,  submitted  in  1 392,  when  his  province 
became  tributary  to  the  Turks.  Recalled  to  Asia  by 
an  attack  from  the  Prince  of  Karaman,  Bayezid  swept 
like  a  whirlwind  over  the  provinces  of  Asia  Minor,  and 
brought  all  the  land  to  his  sway.  Master  of  the  whole 
of  the  Seljuk  kingdom  of  Rum,  and  of  most  of  the 
country  between  the  Bosphorus  and  the  Danube, 
he  was  solemnly  invested  with  the  title  of  "  Sul- 
tan "  by  the  Abbaside  Khalif — who  was  maintained  in 
puppet  state  at  the  Mamluk  Court  at  Cairo,  and  exer- 
cised what  remained  of  the  spiritual  authority  of  the 
once  mighty  Khalifs  of  Damascus  and  Baghdad.' 
Intoxicated  by  success,  the  Sultan  now  gave  himself 
up  to  the  pleasures  of  sense  ;  he  drank  the  forbidden 
wine,  and  indulged  in  the  gross  vices  that  have  too 
constantly  degraded  the  rulers  of  the  Ottoman  Empire, 
yet  all  his  sensuality  could  not  quench  the  general  and 
soldier  in  him.  Hearing  that  a  new  and  formidable 
combination  was  forming  against  him  in  Europe,  he 
shook  off  his  sloth  and  luxury,  and  crossed  the  Bos- 
phorus with  all  the  ancient  energy  which  had  procured 
him  his  title  of  "  Thunderbolt."  It  is  a  singular  fact> 
that  however  indolent  and  besotted  a  Turk  may 
appear,  you  have  but  to  put  a  sword  in  his  hand,  and 

*  It  is  commonly  stated  that  Bayezid  was  the  first  to  adopt  this  title  ; 
but  coins  still  preserved  in  the  British  Museum  and  elsewhere,  prove 
that  both  Orkhan  and  Murad  I.  styled  themselves  Sultan  on  their 
official  currency.  Of  Othman  there  are  no  coins  in  existence,  and  it  is 
probable  that  the  right  to  coin  was  first  assumed  by  Orkhan.  Bayezid 's 
assumption  of  the  title  of  Sultan  was  only  so  far  novel  that  it  re- 
ceived the  sanction  of  the  titular  head  of  the  Mohammedan  reli- 
gion. 


THE   CATHOLIC   CRUSADE.  5 1 

he  will  fire  up  and  fight  like  a  hero.     The  fighting 
spirit  seems  to  be  inherent  in  the  race. 

The  league  that  was  gathering   against  him    was 
indeed  enough  to  dismay  any  sovereign.     Sigismund 
of  Hungary  was  not  the  man  to  sit  still  after  defeat. 
He   had   been    disgracefully   routed    in    1392,   when 
he  had  invaded  Bulgaria,  and  Kosovo  and  the  humi- 
liation of  Serbia  were  events  too  recent  to  be  easily 
forgotten.     The  Hungarians  were  not,  like  some  of 
the  other  adversaries  of  the  Turks,  members  of  what 
they  considered  the  heretical,  or  as  it  styles  itself  the 
"  Orthodox,"  Greek  Church.     So  long  as  the  Turks 
waged  war  upon  such  heretics,  the  Latin  Church  was 
content  to  let  them  alone.    But  Hungary  was  Catholic,    \y' 
and  at  Sigismund's  request   the  Pope  took  up   the 
cause,  and  in  1394  proclaimed  a  crusade  against  the 
Moslems.     All  the  Courts  of  Europe  were  besieged 
with    demands    for    volunteers    in    the    Holy   War. 
France  sent  a  body  of  men-at-arms  under  the  Count 
of  Nevers  to  the  support  of  the  King  of  Hungary,  and 
many  knights  of  renown  came  with  their  retainers  to 
join  in  the  crusade.     They  were  to  defeat  the  Turks, 
cross  the  Hellespont,  and  rescue  the  Holy  Land  from 
the  infidels.      Among   them  were  the   Count  de   la 
Marche,  three  cousins  of  the    French  king,  Philippe 
of  Artois,  Count  of  Eu  and  Constable  of  France,  and 
many  more  of  the  flower  of  the  French  chivalry.    The 
Count  of  Hohenzollern  and  the  Grand  Master  of  the 
Knights  of  St.  John  of  Jerusalem  came  with  their 
followers.     The  Elector  Palatine  brought  a  company 
of  Bavarian  knights  ;   Myrche  with  his  Vlachs  and 
Sisman  with   his  Bulgarians  joyfully  threw  off  the 


52  KOSOVO   AND   NICOPOLIS. 

Turkish  yoke,    broke  all  their  vows,  and  joined  the 
league. 

y  The  allies  marched  through  Serbia,  whose  king 
alone  remained  true  to  his  treaty  with  BayezTd,  and 
his  lands  were  therefore  plundered  ;  they  took 
Vidin  and  Orsova,  and,  mustering  sixty  thousand 
men,  sat  down  before  the  strong  city  of  Nicopolis, 
which,  with  Vidin,  Sistova,  and  Silistria,  formed  the 
four  great  frontier  fortresses  on  the  Danube.  They 
were  held  by  Turkish  garrisons,  and  to  re-take  them 
was  now  the   ardent   desire  of  the    Christian    army. 

^  Vidin  had  already  surrendered  ;  Nicopolis  was  the 
next  to  be  attacked.  Six  days  they  pressed  the  siege 
by  land  and  river,  yet  the  Ottoman  governor  refused 
to  surrender.  The  French  knights,  however,  were  not 
disturbed  by  this  obstinacy,  which  was  of  the  utmost 
value  in  detaining  the  invading  army  until  the  Sultan 
should  come  up  with  them  ;  they  ridiculed  the  mere 
thought  of  Bayezid's  advance,  declared  that  he  would 
not  dare  to  cross  the  Hellespont,  and,  betaking  them- 
selves to  the  wine  and  women  that  they  had  brought 
in  shiploads  down  the  Danube,  they  boasted  in  their 
cups  that  were  the  sky  to  fall  they  would  hold  it  up 
with  their  spears. 

When  scouts  brought  word  that  the  Sultan  was 
within  six  hours'  march  of  Nicopolis,  the  jovial  boon- 
fellows  laughed  them  to  scorn,  and  Marshal  Boucicault 
threatened  to  have  the  bearers'  ears  cut  off  for  raising  a 
false  alarm.  Bayezld  heard  of  these  "  brave  words,"  and 
in  return  swore  that  he  would  stable  his  horse  at  the  high 
altar  of  St.  Peter's  at  Rome.  He  was  upon  the  allies 
before  they  could  credit  their  eyes.    When  the  Turkish 


ll|||l|l!l!!IIIIIilllllfl!(ll(lllllll(l!H[|||ll(lll(ll(I| 


llllllllllllllilllllllillllllllll 


BATTLE   OF  NICOPOLIS.  55 

troops  were  seen  advancing  in  their  usual  perfect  disci- 
pline, the  young  French  nobles,  full  of  wine  and  conceit* 
clamoured  to  begin  the  fight,  and  disregarding  the  coun- 
sel of  Sigismund,  who  knew  that  the  practice  of  the 
Turks  was  to  put  their  worst  troops  in  the  van  of 
battle,  the  hot-headed  Frenchmen  charged  madly  upon 
the  foe,  after  first  celebrating  the  occasion  by  a  mas- 
sacre of  Turkish  prisoners  who  had  vainly  trusted  to 
their  word  of  honour.     Down  they  charged  upon  the 
Turkish  front,  and   falling  like  a  whirlwind  upon  the 
luckless  skirmishers,  whom  Bayezld  had  thrown  for- 
ward, cut  them  in  pieces.     Hacking  right  and  left;  the 
chivalry  of  France  rode  over  their  bodies,  till  they 
reached  the  Janissaries  who  were  drawn  up  behind 
them  ;  ten  thousand  of  the  flower  of  the  Turkish  army 
fell,  before  the  Janissaries  took  refuge  under  cover  of 
the  cavalry.    Still  unchecked,  the  triumphant  cavaliers 
rode  pell-mell  at  the  famous  squadrons  of  the  Sipahls, 
and  five  thousand  horsemen  went  down  before  their 
stormy  charge.      Right  through  the  third  line  of  the 
enemy  they  rode,  exulting  in  their  victory;  and  ascend- 
ing the  high  ground  beyond,  where  they  expected  to 
see  but  the  flying  ruck  of  the  Ottomans — they  suddenly 
found  themselves  confronted  by  a  forest  of  forty  thou- 
sand lances,  the  main  body  of  the  Turkish  army.   Then 
they  remembered,  too  late,  the  counsel  of  Sigismund ; 
and  seized  with  panic  fear,  the  knighthood  of  France 
broke  up  and   fled   for   its   very  life,  pursued  by   the 
horsemen  of  Asia.     Admiral  Jean  de  Vienne,  brave 
man,  bethought  him  of  the  shame  as  he  was  hurrying 
away  ;  and  gathering  his  twelve  knights  about  him  he 

'  See  "  The  Story  of  Hungary,"  by  Prof.  Vambery,  183. 


56  KOSOVO  AND  NICOPOLIS. 

cried,  "  God  forbid  that  we  should  save  our  lives  at  the 
cost  of  our  honour  ; "  so  they  plunged  into  the  thick 
of  the  enemy,  and  died  the  death  of  the  soldier. 

The  Christian  infantry  could  not  witness  this 
fearful  flight  without  dismay  ;  the  Hungarians  and 
Vlachs  on  the  right  and  left  wings  of  the  main 
body  took  to  their  heels.  The  centre  alone  stood 
firm,  where  the  king's  own  Magyar  followers,  the 
Styrians  under  Hermann  Count  of  Cilli,  and  the 
Bavarians  under  the  Elector,  covered  the  retreat  of 
the  French  cavaliers,  and  advanced  in  serried  ranks, 
twelve  thousand  strong,  against  the  Turks.  Despite 
their  scanty  numbers,  they  drove  back  the  Janissaries 
and  came  to  close  combat  with  the  Sipahls,  whom 
they  threatened  to  overthrow,  when  Stephen  of  Serbia, 
faithful  to  his  oath,  led  his  five  thousand  Slavs  upon 
the  Christians  and  won  the  day  for  his  master  the 
Sultan.  The  battle  was  at  an  end  ;  the  remnant  of 
the  Christian  army  was  cut  down  round  the  royal 
standard,  and  Sigismund  was  dragged  away  from  the 
fatal  field  by  the  Count  of  Cilli  and  hurried  into  a 
boat  by  which  he  reached  the  Venetian  fleet  which 
was  waiting  to  cooperate  with  the  army  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Danube.  Instead  of  joining  in  attack,  the 
task  of  the  Venetians  was  narrowed  to  saving  the  few 
surviving  leaders  of  a  vanished  host. 

BayczTd  was  left  victorious  on  the  hard  won  field. 
As  he  rode  among  the  mountains  of  the  slain  he  wept 
tears  of  rage  to  see  how  many  of  his  bravest  warriors 
had  fallen  before  the  furious  onslaught  of  the  French 
and  the  steady  desperation  of  Sigismund's  attack- 
He  resolved  to  avenge  their  death  by  a  fearful  retri- 


MASSACRE   OF  PRISONERS,  57 

bution  upon  the  captives.  Ten  thousand  prisoners  of 
war  were  brought  before  him  the  next  day,  and,  after 
summoning  the  Count  of  Nevers  to  witness  his 
vengeance,  and  permitting  him  to  select  twenty-four 
knights  for  ransom,  he  gave  orders  that  the  rest 
of  the  captives  should  be  slaughtered.  Company 
after  company,  the  stout  knights  and  squires  of 
France,  the  soldiers  of  Germany,  of  Bavaria,  of  Styria, 
of  Hungary,  were  led  before  the  Sultan,  and  there,  in 
the  sight  of  the  Count  of  Nevers  and  his  twenty- 
four  companions,  were  pitilessly  butchered.  One 
Schildberger,  who  was  himself  present,  saved  by  the 
intercession  of  Bayazld's  son,  and  who  lived  to  re- 
turn to  his  native  Munich  after  thirty  years  of  cap- 
tivity, tell  us  how  he  saw  his  comrades  massacred  in 
heaps  by  the  Janissaries  and  the  common  executioners; 
from  daybreak  till  four  in  the  afternoon  the  Sultan 
sat  watching  the  agonies  of  his  enemies,  till  at  last 
his  own  officers,  moved  perhaps  by  pity  and  disgust, 
or  else  by  regret  at  the  loss  of  so  many  marketable 
slaves,  begged  him  to  make  an  end  of  the  butchery 
and  send  the  remainder  of  the  prisoners  into  captivity. 
Thousands  however  had  already  paid  the  penalty 
of  death,  and  among  them,  as  Froissart  says— 

"  ^{jen  tf)e^  \^tvt  all  brougljt  liefore  ILamora-- 
baqtip  naketi  in  tljeiu  ^Ijprte^,  anti  Ijt  beljeltie  tljem 
a  Iprell  anti  tljaix  mrneti  fco  rljem  toa^rtie,  aati  niatic 
a  (S})^nt  tljat  tlje^  sJljultie  lie  all  gdapne,  aud  00  tljep 
Vnere  tirouffljt  tljrouglj  tlje  0ara^^n0  tljat  IjaD  reti^ 
nalictJ  5\Dortie0  in  tljeir  Ijantieei,  anti  00  0la^ne  anti 
Ijevoen  all  to  pecesf  VDitljout  mtttv.    %W  cruell 


58  KOSOVO  AND   NICOPOLIS. 

iu0tpce  tiiti  ilamorabaqup  tljat  tia^e,  bp  t^e  toljiclje 
mo  t^an  tljre  liuntireD  gentlemen  of  tipbet^f  nacpon^ 
toere  tourmenteD  anti  0lapne  for  tbe  lote  of  pH,  on 
iD^og^e  0oule0  3]e0u  Sate  merc^/' 

In  the  following  year  the  Count  of  Nevers  and  the 
surviving  knights  were  ransomed.  Froissart  tells  the 
story  of  their  leavetaking  with  the  Sultan.  When  the 
Count  approached  to  thank  him  for  his  kindness  and 
courtesy  during  their  captivity,  Bayezid  said,  through 
an  interpreter — 

"3|oSan,  31  feno\x)e  Voell  tl)ou  arte  a  peat  lortie  in 
tljp  countre^,  anti  0onne  to  a  great  lorue ;  t^ou  art 
^onge,  anti  peratiuenture  0ljaU  beare  0ome  blame 
anti  0bame  tbat  tljfs  atiuenture  b^tti  fallen  to  tlje 
in  tbp  f^r^te  clj^balrp  ;  anti  to  e;rcu0e  tljp^elfe  of 
tt)i0  blame  anti  to  recouer  tljpne  bonour,  peratiuen-. 
ture  tbou  Voplt  a^^emble  a  pup00aimce  of  men,  anti 
come  anti  make  Voarre  agapn^t  me ;  if  3|  \xiere  in 
Doute  or  feare  tberof,  or  tljou  tieparteti  3  0bwltie 
tm0t  tlje  07 ere  bj)  tb?  laVoe  anti  faptbe  tbat  neuer 
tjou  nor  none  of  tij?  compan)^  0b«ltie  beare  armure 
or  make  loarre  agapn^t  me ;  but  3|  \dpII  notbec 
make  tbe  nor  none  of  tb^  company  to  make  anp 
0ucbe  otbe  or  prome^^e,  but  31  \^}>\l  tbat  \x^[)m  tbou 
arte  retourneti  anb  arte  at  tb?  pleasure,  raptfe  \obttt 
pup00aunce  tbou  toplte,  anb  0pare  nat,  but  come 
agapn^t  me  •,  tbou  ^b^lt  fpntie  me  alvoapetf  rebp 
to  rece^ue  tbe  anb  tlj^  company  in  tbe  felbe  in 
plapne  batajle ;  anb  tbi0  tbat  J  sap,  0bctoe  it  to 
Vobome  tb?  Ip^te,  for  31  am  able  to  bo  tim^  of 


bayezid's  defiance. 


n 


arrne^,  anti  euer  retip  to  conquere  furtJier  into 
crp0teationu  ^^e^se  ^pfflj  \j)ortie0  ttie  tvlt  of 
iPeuer^  bntier^totie  Voell,  and  00  tipti  !)i0  companp ; 
tjep  t^ougjt  on  it  after  a0  long  a^  tlje?  IjueD/' 


IV. 


TiMUR   THE   TARTAR. 

(1402.) 

The  battle  of  Nicopolis  had  placed  BayezTd  at  the 
summit  of  power.  He  issued  boastful  despatches 
to  the  chief  potentates  of  the  East  announcing  his 
triumph,  and,  in  order  to  convince  them  of  its  verity 
by  tangible  evidence,  he  sent  them  by  his  mes- 
sengers presents  of  Christian  slaves  taken  from  the 
conquered  nations.  Nothing  now  could  exceed  the 
pride  and  arrogance  of  the  Turkish  Sultan.  Lord 
of  the  lands  of  the  Greek  Empire  as  far  as  the 
Danube,  and  of  Asia  to  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates,  he 
dreamed  of  world-wide  conquest,  and  even  thought  of 
realizing  his  threat  of  stabling  his  charger  at  the  altar 
of  St.  Peter's  at  Rome.  Not  content  while  any  part 
of  the  Eastern  Empire  remained  unsubdued,  he  carried 
his  arms  southward  through  Thermopylae,  which  had 
no  Leonidas  to  contest  the  pass,  and  with  little 
opposition  established  his  authority  over  the  Pelo- 
ponnesus and  set  up  the  crescent  upon  the  Acropolis 
of  Athens.  The  Greek  P^mperor  was  already  his 
humble  vassal,  and  had  even  consented  to  the  building 
of  a  mosque  in  Constantinople,  in  order  to  appease  the 


.\1A.\UEL   I'ALAEOLOGUS. 


TIMUR   OR    TAMERLANE.  63 

wrath  of  his  imperious  suzerain.  Saladin  the  Great 
and  others  had  extorted  similar  concessions  ;  but  in 
the  present  instance  to  the  mosque  was  added  a 
Mohammedan  college,  and  a  Moslem  judge  or  Kadi 
was  appointed  to  administer  the  laws  of  Islam  in  a 
quarter  specially  set  apart  for  Musulmans  in  the  metro- 
polis of  Orthodox  Christianity. 

The  Turks  had  indeed  obtained  a  fatal  hold  upon 

the    capital    of  the  empire,   and    now   Bayezld,  not 

satisfied  with  the  humiliations  to  which  the  emperor 

had  submitted,  demanded  the  surrender  of  the  city 

itself.     Manuel  scoured  Europe  In  search  of  allies,  but 

in  vain.     Even  when  he  descended  so  low  as  to  beg 

the  assistance  of  his  immemorial  rival  the  Pope,  no 

aid  was  to  be  found  ;  and  the  Turkish  armies,  after 

\  beleaguering  Constantinople  for  six  years,  seemed  on 

ithe  point  of  effecting  the  conquest,  when  a  new  and 

/  terrible  figure  appeared  upon  the  scene,  and  Bayezld 

^  was  forced  to  turn  his  forces  elsewhere. 

Just  at  the  moment  when  the  Sultan  seemed  to  ^ 
have  attained  the  pinnacle  of  his  ambition,  when  his 
authority  was  unquestioningly  obeyed  over  the  greater 
part  of  the  Byzantine  Empire  in  Europe  and  Asia, 
when  the  Christian  states  were  regarding  him  with 
terror  as  the  scourge  of  the  world,  another  and  a 
greater  scourge  came  to  quell  him,  and  at  one  stroke 
all  the  vast  fabric  of  empire  which  Bayezld  had  so 
triumphantly  erected  was  shattered  to  the  ground. 
This  terrible  conqueror  was  Tjmur  the  Tartar,  or  as 
we  call  him  '*  Tamerlane." 

Tlmur  was  of  Turkish    race,  and    was   born    near 
Samarkand  in   1333       He  was  consequently  an  old 


64  TIMUR    THE   TARTAR. 

man  of  nearly  seventy  when  he  came  to  encounter 
Bayezid  in  1402.  It  had  taken  him  many  years  to 
establish  his  authority  over  a  portion  of  the  numerous 
divisions  into  which  the  immense  empire  of  Chingiz 
Khan  had  fallen  after  the  death  of  that  stupendous 
conqueror.  Timur  was  but  a  petty  chief  among  many 
others  :  but  at  last  he  won  his  way,  and  became  ruler 
of  Samarkand  and  the  whole  province  of  Transoxiana, 
or  "  Beyond  the  River "  (Ma-wara-n-nahr),  as  the 
Arabs  called  the  country  north  of  the  Oxus.  Once 
fairly  established  in  this  province,  Timur  began  to 
overrun  the  surrounding  lands,  and  during  thirty 
years  his  ruthless  armies  spread  over  the  provinces  of 
Asia,  from  Dehli  to  Damascus,  and  from  the  Sea  of 
Aral  to  the  Persian  Gulf  The  sub-division  of  the 
Mohammedan  Empire  into  numerous  petty  kingdoms 
rendered  it  powerless  to  meet  the  overwhelming 
hordes  which  Timur  brought  down  from  Central  Asia. 
One  and  all,  the  kings  and  princes  of  Persia  and 
Syria  succumbed,  and  Tlmiir  carried  his  banners 
triumphantly  as  far  as  the  frontier  of  Egypt,  where 
the  brave  Mamluk  Sultans  still  dared  to  defy  him. 
He  had  so  far  left  Bayezid  unmolested  ;  partly 
because  he  was  too  powerful  to  be  rashly  provoked, 
and  partly  because  Timur  respected  the  Sultan's 
valorous  deeds  against  the  Christians  :  for  Timur, 
though  a  wholesale  butcher,  was  very  conscientious 
in  matters  of  religion,  and  held  that  Bayezld's  fighting 
for  the  Faith  rightly  covered  a  multitude  of  sins. 

But  when  two  great  empires  march  together,  as  did 
those  of  the  Tartar  and  the  Turk,  and  when  each  of 
them  has  been  built  up  at  the  expense  of  a  number  of 


FALL    OF   SI  WAS.  65 

petty  dynasties,  every  prince  of  which  naturally  sought 
an  asylum  at  the  Court  of  the  rival  emperor,  the 
relations  of  the  two  Powers  are  apt  to  become 
strained.  So  it  proved  in  the  present  case.  Bayezld 
had  sheltered  some  of  the  princes  of  Mesopotamia 
whom  Timur  had  overthrown  :  Timur  had  welcomed 
to  his  Court  the  petty  rulers  of  Asia  Minor  whom 
Bayezld  had  expelled.  Of  course  the  refugees  on 
either  side,  in  hope  of  restoration,  lost  no  opportunity 
of  exciting  the  jealousy  and  irritability  of  the  rival 
tyrants.  The  result  was  that,  after  an  interchange  of 
embassies  which  only  embittered  the  minds  of  both 
sovereigns,  and  in  which  the  Turk  displayed  more 
than  his  wonted  insolence,  Timur  advanced  to  Siwas, 
the  ancient  Sebaste,  in  Cappadocia,  an  important  city 
which  had  recently  acknowledged  the  authority  of  the 
Turk  along  with  most  of  the  towns  of  Asia  Minor, 
and  after  a  determined  siege  stormed  the  place  and 
put  the  garrison  to  the  sword.  Among  the  rest, 
Prince  Ertoghrul,  a  son  of  Bayezld  was  executed 
(1400). 

The  Sultan  was  laying  siege  to  Constantinople 
when  he  heard  the  news  of  the  fall  of  Slwas  and  the 
death  of  his  son.  He  hurried  over  to  Asia,  at  the 
head  of  his  veteran  troops,  who  had  for  years  borne 
the  brunt  of  war  against  the  chivalry  of  Serbia, 
Hungary,  and  France,  on  such  fields  as  Kosovo  and 
Nicopolis  ;  but  when  he  arrived  Timur  was  gone  :  he 
had  marched  south  to  menace  the  Mamluks  of  Egypt. 
It  was  not  till  the  next  year  (1402)  that  the  two  forces 
met,  and  in  the  interval  Bayezld  had  lost  prestige  with 
his  soldiers.     Timur's  spies  had  been  at  w^ork,  sowing 


66  TIMUR    THE    TARTAR, 

disaffection  among  their  ranks,  and  the  Sultan's 
notorious  meanness  and  avarice  gave  only  too  much 
colour  to  the  insinuations  of  these  emissaries;  the 
Turkish  troops  became  less  hostile  to  Timur  when 
they  found  how  liberal  he  was  to  his  followers.  Still 
Bayezid  did  nothing  to  allay  the  growing  murmurs  of 
his  men,  and  advanced  to  meet  his  adversary  with  an 
army  estimated  vaguely  at  120,000.  Timur,  who  is 
fabled  to  have  commanded  six  times  this  number, 
outmanoeuvred  him  and  secured  an  open  field  at 
Angora,  where  his  superior  force  could  be  used  to  the 
best  advantage. 

So  far  was  Bayezid  from  manifesting  even  common 
caution  in  the  presence  of  the  enemy,  that  out  of  mere 
bravado  he  employed  his  army  in  a  grand  hunt  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Angora.  His  hunting  was  ill  chosen 
as  to  place  as  well  as  time,  for  there  was  no  water, 
and  it  is  said  that  no  less  than  five  thousand  Turks 
perished  from  mere  thirst,  with  never  a  Tartar  arrow 
to  speed  them.  When  the  infatuated  Sultan  returned 
to  his  camp,  he  found  that  Timur  had  seized  it  in  his 
absence,  and  had  poisoned  the  stream  that  would  have 
refreshed  the  weary  Turks.  In  this  position  the 
Ottoman  led  his  dispirited  men  against  the  enemy. 
On  the  one  side  were  men  thirsty  and  exhausted, 
inferior  in  numbers,  and  discontented  with  their 
leader :  on  the  other,  a  vast  host,  strongly  posted, 
splendidly  generalled,  neglecting  no  precaution  of 
war,  and  possessing  every  advantage  of  numbers, 
discipline,  and  physical  condition.  The  result  could 
not  be  doubtful.  In  the  battle  many  of  Bayezld's 
troops,  among  whom  were  forced  contingents  from  the 


BATTLE   OF  ANGORA,  69 

recently  annexed  states  of  Asia  Minor,  went  over  to 
the  enemy,  and  only  the  Janissaries  who  formed  the 
centre,  and  the  Serbian  auxiliaries  under  their  king, 
Stephen  Lazarevich,  on  the  left,  gave  anything  like  a 
soldier's  account  of  themselves  on  that  memorable 
day.  The  valour  of  the  Janissaries  and  the  Serbs 
could  avail  little  against  Timur's  numbers,  and  the 
end  was  utter  rout. 

Old  Knolles  tells  the  story  in  his  quaint  and  graphic 
style  :  "  The  next  day  the  two  armies  drew  near 
together  and  encamped  within  a  league  one  of  the 
other;  where  all  the  night  long  you  might  have  heard 
such  noise  of  horses  as  that  it  seemed  the  heavens 
were  full  of  voices,  the  air  did  so  resound  ;  and  every 
man  thought  the  night  long,  to  come  to  the  trial  of 
his  valour  and  the  gaining  of  his  desires.  The 
Scythians  talked  of  nothing  but  the  spoil,  the  proud 
Parthians  of  their  honour,  and  the  poor  Christians  of 
their  deliverance,  all  to  be  gained  by  the  next  day's 
victory:  every  man  during  the  night  speaking  accord- 
ing to  his  own  humour.  All  which  Tamerlane, 
walking  this  night  up  and  down  in  his  camp,  heard, 
and  much  rejoiced  to  see  the  hope  that  his  soldiers 
had  already  in  general  conceived  of  the  victory. 
Who,  after  the  second  watch,  returning  unto  his 
pavilion,  and  there  casting  himself  upon  a  carpet,  had 
thought  to  have  slept  awhile :  but  his  cares  not 
suffering  him  to  do  so,  he  then,  as  his  manner  was, 
called  for  a  book  wherein  was  contained  the  lives  of 
his  fathers  and  ancestors  and  of  other  valiant  worthies, 
the  which  he  used  ordinarily  to  read,  as  he  then  did  ; 
not  as  therewith  vainly  to  deceive  the  time,  but  to 


7.0  TIMUR    THE    TARTAR. 

make  use  thereof  by  the  imitation  of  that  which  was 
by  them  worthily  done,  and  declining  of  such  dangers 
as  they  by  their  rashness  or  oversight  fell  into.  .  .  . 

"  Now  was  Tamerlane  by  an  espy  advertised  that 
Bajazet,  having  before  given  orders  for  the  disposing 
of  his  army,  was  on  foot  in  the  midst  of  thirty 
thousand  Janissaries,  his  principal  men  of  war  and 
greatest  strength,  wherein  he  meant  that  day  to  fight, 
and  in  whom  he  had  reposed  his  greatest  hope.  .  .  . 
His  army  marching  all  in  one  front,  in  form  of  a  half 
moon  (but  not  so  well  knit  together  as  was  Tamerlane's 
whose  squadrons  directly  followed  one  another)  seemed 
almost  as  great  as  his  ;  and  so  with  infinite  numbers 
of  most  horrible  outcries  still  advanced  forward  ; 
Tamerlane  and  his  soldiers  all  the  while  standing  fast 
with  great  silence. 

"  There  was  not  possible  to  be  seen  a  more  furious 
charge  than  was  by  the  Turks  given  upon  the  Prince 
of  Ciarcan,  who  had  commandment  not  to  fight  before 
the  enemy  came  up  to  him  :  neither  could  have  been 
chosen  a  fairer  plain,  and  where  the  skilful  choice  of 
the  place  was  of  less  advantage  for  the  one  or  the 
other  ;  but  that  Tamerlane  had  the  river  on  the  left 
hand  of  his  army,  serving  him  to  some  small 
advantage.  Now  this  young  Prince  of  Ciarcan  with 
his  forty  thousand  horse  was  in  this  first  encounter 
almost  wholly  overthrown,  yet  having  fought  right 
valiantly  and  entered  into  them,  even  into  the  midst 
of  the  Janissaries  (where  the  person  of  Bajazet  was), 
putting  them  in  disorder,  was  himself  there  slain. 
About  which  time  Axalla  set  upon  them  with  the 
avantguard,  but   not   with    like   danger  ;  for   having 


BATTLE   OF  ANGORA.  yi 

overthrown  one  of  the  enemy's  wings,  and  cut  it  all  to 
pieces,  and  his  footmen  coming  to  join  with  him  as 
they  had  been  commanded,  he  faced  the  battalion  of 
the  Janissaries,  who  right  valiantly  behaved  themselves 
for  the  safety  of  their  prince. 

"  This  hard  fight  continued  one  hour,  and  yet  you 
could  not  have  seen  any  scattered,  but  the  one  still 
resolutely  fighting  against  the  other.  You  might 
there  have  seen  the  horsemen  like  mountains  rush 
together,  and  infinite  numbers  of  men  die,  cry,  lament, 
and  threaten,  all  in  one  instant.  Tamerlane  had 
patience  all  this  while,  to  see  the  event  of  this  so 
mortal  a  fight  ;  but  perceiving  his  men  at  length  to 
give  ground,  he  sent  ten  thousand  of  his  horse  to  join 
again  with  the  ten  thousand  appointed  for  the  rearward, 
and  commanded  them  to  assist  him  at  such  time  as 
he  should  have  need  of  them  ;  and  at  the  very  same 
time  charged  himself  and  made  them  to  give  him 
room,  causing  the  footmen  to  charge  also,  who  gave  a 
furious  onset  upon  the  battalion  of  the  Janissaries. 
Now  Bajazet  had  in  his  army  a  great  number  of 
mercenary  Tartars  [of  the  Seljiakian  States].  .  .  . 
These  Tartarians  and  other  soldiers,  seeing  some 
their  friends,  and  other  some  their  natural  and  loving 
princes  in  the  army  of  Tamerlane,  stricken  with  the 
terror  of  disloyalty  and  abhorring  the  cruelty  of  the 
proud  tyrant,  in  the  heat  of  the  battle  revolted  from 
Bajazet  to  their  own  princes,  which  their  revolt  much 
weakened  Bajazet's  forces.  Who,  nevertheless,  with 
his  own  men  of  war,  and  especially  the  Janissaries, 
and  the  help  of  the  Christian  soldiers  brought  to  his 
aid   from    Serbia  and   other   places  of  Europe,  with 


72  TIMUR    THE    TARTAR, 

great  courage  maintained  the  fight :  but  the  multitude 
and  not  true  valour  prevailed  ;  for  as  much  as  might 
be  done  by  valiant  and  courageous  men  was  by  the 
Janissaries  and  the  rest  performed,  both  for  the 
preservation  of  the  person  of  their  prince  and  the 
gaining  of  the  victory.  But  in  the  end,  the  horsemen, 
with  whom  Tamerlane  himself  was  giving  a  fresh 
charge,  and  the  avantguard  wholly  knit  again  to  him 
reinforcing  the  charge,  he  with  much  ado  obtained  the 
victory."  ^ 

So  on  the  field  of  Angora,  where  the  Ottomans 
had  won  their  spurs  in  their  first  combat  by  the  side 
of  the  Seljukian  Turks  a  hundred  and  fifty  years 
before,  now  was  their  empire  shattered  to  the  ground. 
Bayezld  himself,  with  one  of  his  sons,  was  taken 
prisoner,  and  the  unfortunate  Sultan  became  a  part 
of  his  victor's  pageant,  and  was  condemned  in  fetters, 
to  follow  his  captor  about  in  his  pomps  and  cam- 
paigns. The  fact  that  he  was  carried  in  a  barred 
litter  gave  rise  to  the  well-known  legend  that  he 
was  kept  in  an  iron  cage.^  He  died  eight  months 
later,  and  Timur  survived  his  humbled  prisoner 
but  two  years.  In  that  time,  however,  he  had 
overrun  the  Turkish  Empire  in  Asia,  had  occupied 
Nicaea,  Brusa,   and    the    other    chief  cities   of    the 

*  Knolles,  i.   152. 

'  Racine,  in  his  tragedy  "  Bajazet,"  made  the  story  of  this  Sultan  the 
means  of  familiarizing  his  generation  with  the  history  and  habits  of  a 
people  with  whom  they  were  little  acc}iiainted  ;  and  Bayezld  appears 
also  in  Marlowe's  "  Tamburlaine  the  Cireat."  In  the  latter  he  actually 
beats  his  brains  out  against  the  iron  bars  of  his  cage.  The  English 
Rowe  and  the  French  I'radon  also  based  tragedies  on  the  same  fruitful 
theme. 


FALL    OF  BAYEZID.  73 

coast,  had  wrested  Smyrna  from  the  valiant  Knights 
of  St.  John,  and  had  restored  the  various  petty  princes 
of    Asia    Minor   to   their   former   possessions.      The 
empire  of  the  Turks,  built  up  with  so  much  skill  and  1 
bravery,  till    it   had    become   the   terror   of   Europe,  I 
crumbled  to  dust  before  the  Asiatic  despot,  who  well/ 
earned  his  title  of  "The  Wrath  of  God."     The  history! 
of  the  Ottomans  seemed  to  have  suddenly  come  to',^ 
an  end.     Seldom  has  the  world  seen  so  complete,  so  \ 
terrible,  a  catastrophe  as  the  fall  of  Bayezld  from  the   \ 
summit  of  power  to  the  shame  of  a  chained  captive.    1 


MQHAMMED_THE   RESTORER. 
(1402-1421.) 

The  Ottoman  power  seemed  gone  for  ever.  At 
one  blow  Timur,  the  "Noble  Tartarian,"  had  ap- 
parently swept  it  out  of  Asia,  and  there  were  too 
many  foes  waiting  their  opportunity  in  Europe  to 
make  the  hold  of  the  Turks  upon  their  European 
provinces  anything  but  precarious.  Hungarians, 
Poles,  Bulgarians,  Albanians,  Vlachs,  and  many 
more  hovered  on  the  brink  of  the  Turkish  provinces, 
or  were  ready  to  rise  in  revolt  within  their  borders. 
Their  enemy  was  fallen  they  thought  for  ever. 

The  most  astonishing  characteristic  of  the  rule  of 
the  Turks  is  its  vitality.  Again  and  again  its  doom 
has  been  pronounced  by  wise  prophets,  and  still  it 
survives.  Province  after  province  has  been  cut  off 
the  empire,  yet  still  the  Sultan  sits  supreme  over 
wide  dominions,  and  is  reverenced  or  feared  by  sub- 
jects of  many  races.  Considering  how  little  of  the 
great  qualities  of  the  ruler  the  Turk  has  often 
possessed,  how  little  trouble  he  has  taken  to  con- 
ciliate the  subjects  whom  his  sword  has  subdued, 
it   is   amazing    how    firm    has    been    his   authority, 


VITALITY  OF   TURKISH  RULE.  75 

how  unshaken  his  power.  At  the  moment  when 
Timur's  armies  were  ravaging  the  southern  shores 
of  the  Bosphorus  and  the  Greek  Empire  was  almost 
rousing  from  its  long  sleep  and  retaking  its  lost 
provinces  in  Europe,  the  Turkish  power  might  well 
be  said  to  be  annihilated  ;  yet  within  a  dozen  years 
the  lost  provinces  were  reunited  under  the  strong  and 
able  rule  of  Mohammed  I.,  and  the  Ottoman  Empire, 
far  from  being  weakened  by  the  apparently  crushing 
blow  it  had  received  in  1402,  rose  stronger  and  more 
vigorous  after  its  fall,  and,  like  a  giant  refreshed, 
prepared  for  new  and  bolder  feats  of  conquest. 

Mr.  Finlay,  the  gifted  historian  of  medieval  and 
modern  Greece,  has  been  to  some  pains  to  investigate 
the  reason  of  the  strange  phenomenon  presented  by 
the  progress  of  the  Ottoman  power.  The  same 
causes  which  produced  their  first  success  must  account 
for  their  even  more  astonishing  resurrection.  "The 
establishment  of  the  Ottoman  Turks  in  Europe,"  he 
says,  "  is  the  last  example  of  the  conquest  of  a  nu- 
merous Christian  population  by  a  small  number  of 
Musulman  invaders,  and  of  the  colonization  of 
civilized  countries  by  a  race  ruder  than  the  native 
population.  The  causes  which  produced  these  results 
were  in  some  degree  similar  to  those  which  had 
enabled  small  tribes  of  Goths  and  Germans  to  occupy 
and  subdue  the  Western  Roman  Empire ;  but  three 
particular  causes  demand  especial  attention.  First,  the^ 
superiority  of  the  Ottoman  tribe  over  all  contemporary  ; 
nations  in  religious  convictions  and  in  moral  and 
military  conduct.  Second,  the  number  of  different 
races  which  composed  the  population  of  the  country 


76  MOHAMMED   THE  RESTORER, 

between  the  Adriatic  and  the  Black  Sea,  the  Danube 
and  the  Aegean.  Third,  the  depopulation  of  the 
Greek  Empire,  the  degraded  state  of  its  judicial  and 
civil  administration,  and  the  demoralization  of  the 
Hellenic  race."  ^ 

/  As  Mr.  Finlay  goes  on  to  explain,  the  respect  with 
^  which  Othman  and  his  successors  were  regarded  by 
the  countless  Mohammedan  and  Christian  tribes, 
subjects  who  flocked  to  their  standard  and  gladly 
submitted  to  their  authority,  is  a  sure  proof  of  real 
superiority.  Other  barbarous  races  have  risen  to  power 
and  conquered  rich  provinces,  only  to  succumb  to  the 
vices  of  luxury  and  demoralization.     The  Ottomans 

1  long  retained  their  pristine  vigour  and  morality.  The 
cause  of  this  is  to  be  sought  to  a  great  extent  in 
the  extraordinary  skill  with  which  Orkhan  and  his 
brother  Ala-ud-dln  organised  their  new  state  ;  the 
admirable  administration  of  justice;  and  the  sys- 
tematic education  in  the  household  of  the  Sultan, 
both  for  civil  and  military  purposes,  of  the  Christian 
tribute-children  who  formed  the  nucleus  of  the  Otto- 
man power,  and  who,  deprived  of  the  natural  ties 
of  country  and  family,  became  devoted  to  the  Sultan 
to  whom  they  owed  their  judicious  training  and 
subsequent  advancement :  "  It  was  by  their  mental 
as  well  as  physical  power  that  a  vast  variety  of  races 
both  Mohammedan  and  Christian  were  held  together 
by  as  firm  a  grasp  as  that  by  which  imperial  Rome 
held  her  provinces  ;  and  the  standard  of  the  Sultan 
was  carried  victoriously  into  the  heart  of  Europe  and 
Asia,  and  far  along  the  shores  of  Africa.     Never  was 

*  *•  History  of  Greece,"  iii.  475. 


SUPERIORITY   OF   THE   OTTOMANS,  77 

SO  durable  a  power  reared  up  so  rapidly  from  such 
scanty  means  as  were  possessed  by  Orkhan  and  his 
Vezir,  when  they  conceived  the  bold  idea  of  exter- 
minating Christianity  by  educating  Christian  children." 

The  same  sound  education  which  was  given  to  the 
tribute-children  was  shared  by  the  Ottoman  princes 
of  the  blood,  and  the  result  was  that  the  early  rulers 
of  the  Turkish  Empire  were  men  of  sagacity  and 
progressive  views,  always  ready  to  improve  the  ad- 
ministration and  the  army,  and  to  introduce  new 
inventions  and  combinations.  Sultans  possessed  of  so 
wise  a  spirit  were  dangerous  opponents  of  the  shifty 
and  unprincipled  Greek  emperors,  and  their  ably 
organized  and  educated  followers  were  infinitely  the 
superiors  of  the  disunited  and  corrupt  subjects  of  the 
Palaeologi.  These  subjects,  moreover,  belonged  to 
various  hostile  and  jealous  races  ;  they  were  Slavs, 
Greeks,  Bulgarians,  Vlachs,  Albanians,  and  all  degrees 
or*Ynixture,  nor  were  the  several  races  collected  to- 
gether, but  scattered  in  various  quarters  of  the  em- 
pire. And  that  empire  itself  was  so  degraded  and 
corrupt  in  its  government  that  it  possessed  no  power 
of  uniting  its  motley  subjects  or  stemming  the  tide 
of  demoralization  that  was  swamping  the  whole 
population.  The  road  was  open  to  the  Ottomans, 
and  they  were  prepared  to  take  it :  they  had  served 
a  worthy  apprenticeship  to  the  trade  they  were  to 
follow. 

Such  causes  led  to  the  success  of  the  Turks 
against  the  empire,  and  though  the  temporary  over- 
throw of  the  Ottoman  power  by  Timur  checked  their 
progress   for  the   moment,  the  elements   of   success 


yS  MOHAMMED   THE  RESTORER, 

were  not  abolished.  The  Ottomans  were  still  the 
trained,  educated,  disciplined  force,  civil  and  military, 
^  they  had  ever  been.  The  Greek  Empire  was  not  the 
less  decrepit  because  its  antagonist  was  for  an  instant 
laid  low.  It  needed  but  a  wise  and  patient  sovereign 
to  retrieve  the  disaster  and  restore  the  Ottoman  power 
to  its  former  supremacy  and  renown. 

Such  a  ruler  was  Mohammed  I.,  the  son  of  Baye- 
zld.  The  Greeks  described  him  as  "  persevering  as 
a  camel,"  and  to  his  prudence  and  sagacity  the  Otto- 
man Empire  owed  as  rniich  as  it  did  to  the  fighting 
qualities  of  his  predecessors  and  successors.  No  other 
dynasty  can  boast  such  a  succession  of  brilliant  sove- 
reigns as  those  who  conducted  the  Ottomans  to  the 
height  of  renown  in  the  fourteenth,  fifteenth,  and  six- 
teenth centuries.  Orkhan,  the  taker  of  Nicaea  and 
founder  of  the  Janissaries  ;  Murad  L,  the  conqueror 
at  Kosovo  ;  BayezTd  I.,  the  victor  of  Nicopolis ;  Mo- 
hammed I.,  the  restorer  of  the  shattered  empire  ; 
Murad  II.,  the  antagonist  of  Hunyady  and  of  Skan- 
derbeg ;  Mohammed  II.,  the  conqueror  of  Constanti- 
nople ;  SelTm  I.,  who  annexed  Kurdistan,  Syria,  and 
Egypt ;  and  Suleyman  the  Magnificent,  the  victor  on 
the  field  of  Mohdcs  and  the  besieger  of  Vienna. 
Never  did  eight  such  sovereigns  succeed  one  another 
(save  for  the  feeble  Bayezld  II.)  in  unbroken  succes- 
sion in  any  other  country ;  never  was  an  empire 
founded  and  extended  during  two  such  splendid 
centuries  by  such  a  series  of  great  rulers.  In  the 
hour  of  dismay,  as  well  as  in  the  moment  of  triumph, 
the  Turkish  Sultan  was  master  of  the  situation. 

It  was  in  the  hour  of  dismay  that  Sultan  Moham- 


RIVAL   CLAIMANTS,  79 

med^I.  displayed  his  statesmanlike  qualities.  He 
began  without  an  empire,  and  the  least  encouraging 
sign  of  the  times  was  the  jealousy  which  prompted 
his  brothers,  aided  by  the  crowd  of  jealous  Seljuk 
nobles  and  princes,  to  dispute  with  one  another  for 
the  throne.  Mohammed  was  the  youngest  son  of 
Bayezld,  and  his  elder  brothers  naturally  asserted 
their  prior  right  to  the  crown.  While  he  set  up  a  little 
shadow  of  a  principality  at  Amasia,  Prince  Suleyman 
raised  his  standard  at  Adrianople  and  claimed  the 
homage  of  the  Turkish  subjects  in  Europe ;  Prince 
Isa  established  himself  at  Brusa,  and  seized  part  of 
the  Asiatic  provinces  ;  while  Prince  Musa,  after  bring- 
ing his  father's  body  to  Brusa  to  be  buried,  joined  in 
the  race  for  power.  Suleyman,  who  had  made  him- 
self odious  to  his  troops  by  his  savage  cruelty  and 
debauchery,  was  deserted  by  his  army  and  killed 
(1410).  Musa,  who  reaped  the  advantages  of  his 
brother's  death  and  emulated  his  brutality,  waged  a 
campaign  against  the  Serbians,  in  which  he  ravaged 
the  country  with  all  the  ruthlessness  that  a  Turkish 
army  can  display,  and  is  said  to  have  feasted  his 
officers  upon  tables  constructed  of  the  corpses  of  three 
Serb  garrisons.  He  then  laid  siege  to  Constanti- 
nople, and  the  emperor  called  Mohammed  to  his  aid. 
After  several  reverses  Mohammed,  assisted  by  Ste- 
phen, king  of  Serbia,  the  old  ally  of  Bayezid,  routed 
the  besieging  army,  and  in  the  flight  Musa  was  killed. 
Prince  Isa  had  meanwhile  disappeared  into  obscurity, 
and  Mohammed  I.  was  now  (141 3)  sole  Sultan  over 
the  undivided  Turkish  Empire, 

His   reign    as   absolute    Sultan    lasted   only  eight 


8o  MOHAMMED   THE  RESTORER. 

years,  but  in  that  brief  space  he  worked  wonders. 
He  did  not  indeed  attempt  the  warlike  achievements 
of  his  father,  though  he  was  prompt  to  resist  any 
encroachment  upon  his  dominions.  He  suffered 
I  more  than  one  defeat  from  the  Christians  of  his 
'  northern  frontier,  and  his  fleet  was  severely  beaten 
off  Gallipoli  by  the  Venetians  under  Admiral  Lore- 
Idano.  Mohammed  had,  however,  clearly  grasped  his 
position,  and  had  realized  that  his  policy  must  be 
steady  consolidation  rather  than  extension  ;  and  he 
did  not  allow  a  few  trifling  reverses  to  tempt  him 
into  dangerous  campaigns.  What  he  aimed  at  he 
accomplished  :  to  maintain  the  boundaries  of  his  em-  ' 
pire  and  strengthen  the  ties  between  the  sovereign 
j  and  his  subjects,  which  the  disaster  at  Angora  must 
/have  sorely  strained.  With  this  object  his  chief i 
y  desire  was  for  peace,  and  he  made  the  Greek  emperor 
his  friend,  first  by  supporting  him  against  Musa,  and 
then  by  surrendering  to  him  certain  places  on  the 
Black  Sea  and  some  fortresses  in  Thessaly.  He 
received  ambassadors  from  the  rulers  of  Serbia, 
Wallachia,  and  Albania,  with  assurances  of  good- will, 
and  concluded  a  treaty  of  amity  with  Venice.  In 
Asia  his  authority  was  established  with  more  diffi- 
culty, for  the  prince  of  Karaman,  who  had  been 
reinstated  by  Timur,  asserted  his  ancient  indepen- 
dence and,  not  being  an  effete  Greek,  but  a  plucky 
Turk,  seized  the  moment  of  anarchy  to  invade  the 
chief  cities  of  the  Ottoman  dominion  in  Asia.  Mo- 
hammed defeated  him,  but  wisely  refrained,  in  the 
convalescent  state  of  the  empire,  from  endangering  its 
complete  recovery  by  any  very  stringent    measures 


83 

against  the  petty  dynasties  of  Asia  Minor.  He  re- 
ceived their  homage,  but  left  it  to  his  successor  to 
reduce  them  once  again  to  the  position  of  Turkish 
provinces  to  which  Bayezld  had  brought  them  shortly 
before  his  fall. 

A  revolt  of  the  dervishes,  and  the  appearance  of  a 
pretender  to  the  throne,  further  disturbed  the  Sultan's 
pacific  designs  ;  but  they  were  suppressed,  and  he 
was  able  to  devote  himself  again  to  those  measures 
of  consolidation  and  to  those  cultivated  tastes  for 
poetry  and  literature  for  which  he  was  distinguished. 
He  was  called  Chelebi  Mohammed,  "  Mohammed 
the  Gentleman  "  ;  and  no  name  could  better  express 
the  refinement  and  humanity  of  his  character.  It  is 
recorded  to  his  discredit  that  he  caused  his  only 
surviving  brother  Kasim  to  be  blinded,  and  killed 
the  child  of  Suleyman  ;  but  it  must  be  remembered 
that  Mohammed  had  experienced  too  terribly  the 
evils  of  rival  claimants  to  the  throne  to  be  prone  to 
suffer  the  empire  to  be  again  plunged  into  the  intes- 
tinal troubles  which  had  marked  the  beginning  of 
his  own  reign.  It  appears  to  be  the  rule  that  a 
Turkish  prince  is  never  satisfied  with  anything  short 
of  the  Sultanate  ;  and  it  becomes  a  matter  of  sheer 
necessity,  and  not  a  question  of  jealous  suspicion,  to 
make  it  impossible  for  him  to  attain  his  ambition. 
In  the  present  day  this  is  done  by  imprisoning  him 
in  the  seraglio  till  he  becomes  almost  idiotic.  The 
old,  and  perhaps  the  more  merciful,  way  was  to  kill 
him  outright. 

Mohammed  I.  died  in  the  spring  of  the  year  142 1, 
and  was  buried  near  the  beautiful  mosque  which  he  had 


84 


MOHAMMED    THE  RESTORER. 


built  at  Brusa,  known  as  the  Green  Mosque,  from  the 
colour  of  the  tiles  that  adorned  its  domes.  Brusa  was 
no  longer  the  capital  of  the  Turks.  Mohammed  had 
taken  an  ominous  step  :  he  had  transferred  his 
capital  to  Europe.  Adrianople  was  the  metropolis  of 
the  Ottomans. 


VI. 

MURAD   II.    AND   HUNYADY. 

(1421-1451.) 

The  new  Sultan,  Murad  II.,  who  succeeded  in; 
142 1,  possessed  all  the  clemency  and  prudence  that! 
characterized  Mohammed  the  Gentleman  ;  but  his/ 
temper  was  of  that  ambitious  adventurous  order 
which  the  state  of  the  empire  at  that  time  demanded. 
Mohammed's  conciliatory  disposition,  his  peaceful  and 
consolidating  policy,  had  been  of  the  utmost  service 
to  the  State.  The  Turks  were  now  ready  to  resume  1 
the  career  of  conquest  which  had  been  interrupted  by  / 
the  thunderstorm  of  Angora,  and  Murad  was  the  very 
leader  they  wanted.  He  lost  no  time  in  giving 
abundant  proofs  of  his  mettle.  The  Greek  emperor, 
forgetful  of  his  old  ties  with  Mohammed,  and  con- 
temptuous of  the  stripling  of  eighteen  years  who  now 
ascended  the  Ottoman  throne,  let  loose  a  supposititious 
son  of  Bayezld,  Mustafa,  who  had  claimed  the  throne 
some  years  before,  and  had  ever  since  been  kept  in 
close  custody  at  Constantinople.  Mustafa  enjoyed  a 
transitory  gleam  of  triumph,  and  subdued  the  Euro- 
pean provinces  for  awhile  ;  but  he  was  soon  found 
wanting,  and   Murad  had  him   hanged  "  to  convince 


V 


S6  MURAD  IL  AND  HUNYADY, 

the  world  that  he  was  an  impostor."  Murad  then 
resolved  to  punish  the  duplicity  of  Manuel,  and  laid 
siege  to  the  imperial  city.  Already  had  Yildirim 
BayezTd  sat  down  before  the  city  of  Constantine, 
but  he  had  been  recalled  to  Asia  by  the  coming  of 
Timur.  In  like  manner  Murad  had  made  some 
progress  in  the  siege ;  he  had  drawn  his  lines  from 
the  "Golden  to  the  Wooden  Gate,  and  an  assault  had 
been  attempted  and  vigorously  repulsed  by  the 
defenders,  when  a  revolt  in  Asia  Minor  put  an 
end  to  the  attack,  and  Murad  hastily  crossed  the 
Bosphorus  to  put  down  a  brother's  insurrection.  On 
his  return  he  did  not  recommence  the  siege,  but 
accepted  a  heavy  tribute  from  the  emperor,  and  left 
him  in  possession  of  Thessalonica  (until  1436),  and 
some  forts  in  Thrace  and  Thessaly.  To  prevent 
any  further  opportunities  for  the  disaffected  in  Asia, 
Murad  finally  annexed  most  of  the  various  petty 
states  which  Timur  had  resuscitated,  and  henceforth 
we  hear  little  of  wars  with  the  dynasties  that  had 
once  been  the  rivals  of  the  Ottomans  in  the  suc- 
cession to  the  kingdom  of  the  Seljuks. 

Murad's  fighting  qualities  were  soon  to  be  put  to 
such  a  test  as  no  Asiatic  prince  could  offer  him.  The 
Christian  states  were  again  in  arms,  and  they  had 
found  a  leader  whose  name  is  famous  in  the  front 
rank  of  European  generals.  So  long  as  Stephen 
Lazarevich  lived,  the  treaty  which  bound  Serbia  to 
alliance  with  the  Turks  was  faithfully  observed ; 
but  on  his  death  in  1427  a  new  king  arose,  George 
Brankovich,  who  knew  not  Murad,  and  who  began 
to   collect   the   forces   of    Serbia,    Bosnia,    Hungary, 


J 


THE    WHITE  KNIGHT,        J  8y 

Poland,  Wallachia,  and  Albania,  against  the  common 
enemy. 

Hunyady  was  the  name  the  Christians  conjured 
with.  When  King  Sigismund  of  Hungary  was  flying 
from  one  of  his  unsuccessful  engagements  with  the 
Ottoman  armies,  he  met  and  loved  the  beautiful 
Elizabeth  Morsiney,  at  the  village  of  Hunyade,  and 
John  Hunyady  was  believed  to  be  the  fruit  of  this 
consolatory  affection.  "  Whatsoever  his  parents 
were,"  says  KnoUes,  "  he  himself  was  a  politic, 
valiant,  fortunate,  and  famous  captain,  his  victories  so 
great  as  the  like  was  never  before  by  any  Christian 
prince  obtained  against  the  Turks  ;  so  that  his  name 
became  unto  them  so-  dreadful  that  they  used  the 
same  to  fear  their  crying  children  withal."  Hunyady 
had  won  his  spurs  in  the  wars  in  Italy,  where  his 
silver  armour  had  gained  him  the  sobriquet  by  which 
De  Commines  styles  him,  "  the  White  Knight  of 
Wallachia."  Returning  to  his  own  country,  he-  was 
chosen  Ban  of  Szoreny  and  Voyvode  of  Transyl- 
vania, and  soon  displayed  his  prOwess.  "  This  worthy 
captain,"  again  to  quote  Knolles,  "  began  to  keep  the 
Turks  short  by  cutting  them  off  whensoever  they  pre- 
sumed to  enter  into  his  country,  and  also  by  shutting 
up  the  passages  whereby  they  were  wont  to  forage  the 
country  of  Transylvania ;  and  when  he  had  put  his 
own  charge  into  good  safety,  he  entered  into  Moldavia,- 
and  never  rested  till  he  had  won  it  quite  out  of  the 
Turks'  hands.  And  not  contented  with  this,  passed 
many  times  over  Danubius  into  the  Turks'  dominions, 
making  havoc  of  the  Turks,  and  carrying  away  with 
him  great  booty,  with  many  captives."     For  twenty 


88  MURAD  II.  AND  HUNYADY, 

years  he  was  the  terror  of  the  Ottomans  and  the 
saviour  of  the  kingdom  of  Hungary,  of  which,  during 
the  minority  of  Vladislaus  V.,  he  was  chosen  governor. 
The  great  events  in  his  career  were  the  battles  of 
Hermannstadt  and  Nissa,  the  passage  of  the  Balkan, 
the  defeat  at  Varna,  and  the  storming  of  Belgrade.^ 

The  first  of  these  encounters  took  place  during 
the  siege  of  Hermannstadt,  in  Transylvania,  which 
Murad's  general,  Mezld,  was  pressing  as  some  compen- 
sation for  a  repulse  which  the  Ottoman  troops  had 
recently  received  at  Belgrade.  Hunyady  came  to 
the  rescue  of  the  beleaguered  city  with  a  small  force 
in  1442,  and  aided  by  a  sally  of  the  garrison  totally 
routed  the  Turkish  army,  killed  20,000  of  the  enemy, 
and  having  taken  their  general  prisoner  had  him 
publicly  hacked  to  pieces.  Hunyady  was  as  cruel 
and  bloodthirsty  as  even  the  traditional  Bashibozuk. 
It  was  his  delight  to  have  his  banquets  accompanied 
by  the  sight  of  the  slaughtering  of  his  enemies,  just 
as  other  princes  prefer  to  eat  their  dinner  to  the 
sound  of  music  ;  but  Hunyady's  music  was  the  shriek 
of  a  dying  prisoner.  Soon  after  his  success  at  Her- 
mannstadt, he  heavily  defeated  the  Turks  at  Vasag, 
or  Vaskapu,  and  in  1443  commanded  a  magnificent 
army,  composed  of  the  flower  of  Hungary,  Serbia, 
and  Wallachia,  together  with  a  band  of  crusaders 
from  Italy  whom  the  Pope  had  excited  to  the  holy 
war.  King  Vladislaus  of  Hungary  was  present, 
and  Cardinal  Julian  brought  the  weight  of  papal 
authority.      They  met   the   Ottoman   troops  on   the 

*  For  some  account  of  tlie  career  of  the  Hungarian  hero  see  "  The 
Story  of  Hungary,"  chap.  ix. 


THE   PASSAGE   OF   THE   BALKAN,  89 

banks  of  the  Morava,  near  Nissa,  and  routed  them 
completely.  The  Turks  fled  over  the  Balkan,  and 
Hunyady  pursued  them. 

To  cross  the  Balkan  in  winter  from  north  to  south 
against  armed  opposition  is  a  feat  rarely  accom- 
plished. Diebitsch  and  Gourko  are  the  only  generals 
besides  Hunyady  who  have  achieved  it.  The  Turks 
had  skilfully  barricaded  the  passes,  and  poured  water 
down  the  approaches,  which  froze  into  an  icy  wall 
during  the  night.  The  passage  seemed  impracticable. 
Yet  nothing  daunted,  and  braving  the  weapons  of  the 
Turks  with  the  same  inflexibility  as  the  rigours  of 
the  cold,  the  Hungarians  forced  the  pass  of  Isladi, 
and  kept  Christmas  on  the  southern  slope  of  the 
famous  range.  In  the  plain  below  they  once  again 
inflicted  a  defeat  upon  the  discomfited  Ottomans.  It 
seemed  as  though  the  Turkish  Empire  in  Europe  was 
at  the  feet  of  the  intrepid  general,  and  we  read  with 
amazement  that  instead  of  advancing  upon  Adrianople 
Hunyady  abandoned  the  fruits  of  his  triumphant  cam- 
paign and  returned  to  Buda,  there  to  display  his  booty 
and  his  captives  to  his  admiring  countrymen.  Murad 
seized  the  opportunity  to  offer  terms  of  peace,  and  the 
Treaty  of  Szegedin,  by  which  Serbia  regained  her  in- 
dependence and  Wallachia  was  annexed  to  Hungary, 
was  solemnly  sworn  upon  the  Gospel  and  the  Koran, 
and  peace  was  concluded  for  ten  years. 

Murad,  like  Charles  V.,  had  already  tasted  enough 
of  the  joys  and  the  sorrows  of  empire,  and  the 
death  of  his  eldest  son  so  sorely  afflicted  him  that 
he  longed  for  the  peace  and  retirement  which  he 
could  never  attain  upon  the  throne.     He  abdicated 


90  MURAD  IT.   AND  HUNYADY, 

in  1444,  soon  after  the  conclusion  of  the  Treaty  of 
Szegedin,  and  his  son  Mohammed  II.  reigned  in  his 
stead.  Murad  contentedly  retired  to  Magnesia,  where 
he  intended  to  enjoy  what  remained  of  his  life  in 
cultivated  leisure. 

No  sooner  were  the  Christians  aware  of  the  abdi- 
cation of  the  famous  Sultan,  whose  generalship, 
despite  the  reverses  his  Pashas  had  received  at  the 
hands  of  Hunyady,  was  still  an  article  of  faith  with 
his  foes,  than  they  resolved  to  forsake  their  treaty. 
The  Pope  and  the  Greek  Emperor  used  their  spiritual 
influence  to  induce  Hunyady  to  break  his  oath,  and 
Cardinal  Julian  employed  the  celebrated  and  in- 
famous argument  which  Cardinal  Ximenes  with  equal 
success  urged  upon  the  conscience  of  Isabella  of  Castile 
— that  oaths  are  not  to  be  kept  with  infidels.  Hun- 
yady was  with  difficulty  persuaded,  but  the  promise  of 
ithe  kingship  of  Bulgaria  was  too  much  for  his  honour, 
and  he  agreed  to  perjure  himself.  The  treaty  had 
hardly  been  sworn  a  month  when  this  perfidy  was  afoot ; 
but  the  conspirators  waited  till  the  Turks  had  loyally 
carried  out  their  part  of  the  bond  and  had  evacuated 
the  forts  of  Serbia,  before  they  began  to  disclose  their 
plans. 

Nothing  more  derogatory  to  the  chivalry  of  Europe 
and  the  fame  of  a  great  general  could  be  imagined 
than  the  manner  in  which  this  treachery  was  carried 
out.  As  soon  as  they  had  obtained  the  full  advan- 
tages of  the  treaty  they  were  about  to  disown,  by  the 
retirement  of  the  Ottoman  garrisons,  Hunyady,  with 
the  King  of  Hungary,  and  Cardinal  Julian,  marched 
upon  the  unsuspecting  Turks,  and  with  only  20,000 


THE   EVE   OF   ST.   MATHURIN.  9I 

men  began  to  invade  the  Ottoman  dominions.  They 
took  many  strong  places,  and  massacred  the  garri- 
sons or  threw  them  over  precipices.  Reaching  the 
Black  Sea,  they  turned  south,  and  had  advanced 
as  far  as  Varna,  which  surrendered  to  their  siege, 
when  they  learned  that  Murad  had  been  roused  from 
his  retreat,  had  resumed  the  sceptre,  and  collected  an 
army  of  40,000  veterans,  who  were  then  being  con- 
veyed across  the  Bosphorus  for  a  ducat  a  man  in 
Genoese  vessels.  By  forced  marches  the  Sultan 
pressed  forward,  and  soon  the  news  was  brought  that 
he  was  close  at  hand. 

Hunyady,  notwithstanding  the  smallness  of  his 
force,  and  the  awe  which  the  Sultan's  name  inspired, 
was  not  dismayed.  He  was  confident  of  victory,  and, 
refusing  to  entrench  his  camp,  declared  he  would 
fight  in  the  open  field. 

"  On  the  eve  of  the  feast  of  St.  Mathurin,"  says 
Sir  Edward  Creasy,  "the  loth  of  November,  1444, 
the  two  armies  stood  arrayed  for  battle.  The  left 
wing  of  the  Christian  army  consisted  chiefly  of 
Wallachian  troops.  The  best  part  of  the  Hungarian 
soldiery  was  in  the  right  wing,  where  also  stood> 
the  Prankish  crusaders  under  Cardinal  Julian.  The 
king  was  in  the  centre,  with  the  royal  guard  and 
the  young  nobility  of  his  realms.  The  rearguard  of 
Polish  troops  was  under  the  Bishop  of  Peterwaradin. 
Hunyady  acted  as  commander-in-chief  of  the  whole 
army.  On  the  Turkish  side  the  two  first  lines  were 
composed  of  cavalry  and  irregular  infantry,  the  Beg- 
lerbeg  of  Rumelia  commanding  on  the  right,  and  the 
Beglerbeg  of  Anatolia  on  the  left.      In  the  centre, 


92  MURAD   II.   AND   HUNYADY. 

behind  their  h'nes,  the  Sultan  took  his  post,  with  his 
Janissaries  and  the  regular  cavalry  of  his  bodyguard. 
A  copy  of  the  violated  treaty  was  placed  on  a  lance- 
head  and  raised  on  high  among  the  Turks  as  a 
standard  in  the  battle  and  a  visible  appeal  to  the 
God  of  Truth,  who  punishes  perjury  among  man- 
kind. 

"At  the  very  instant  when  the  armies  were  about  to 
encounter,  an  evil  omen  troubled  the  Christians.  A 
strong  and  sudden  blast  of  wind  swept  through  their 
ranks,  and  blew  all  their  banners  to  the  ground,  save 
only  that  of  the  king.  Yet  the  commencement  of 
the  battle  seemed  to  promise  them  a  complete  and 
glorious  victory.  Hunyady  placed  himself  at  the 
head  of  the  right  wing,  and  charged  the  Asiatic 
troops  with  such  vigour  that  he  broke  them  and 
chased  them  from  the  field.  On  the  other  wing,  the 
Wallachians  were  equally  successful  against  the 
cavalry  and  Azabs  of  Rumelia.  King  Vladislaus 
advanced  boldly  with  the  Christian  centre,  and  Murad, 
seeing  the  rout  of  his  two  first  lines  and  the  disorder 
that  was  spreading  itself  in  the  ranks  round  him,  des- 
paired of  the  fate  of  the  day,  and  turned  his  horse  for 
flight. 

"  Fortunately  for  the  house  of  Othman,  Karaja,  the 
Beglerbeg  of  Anatolia,  who  had  fallen  back  on  the 
centre  with  the  remnant  of  his  defeated  wing,  was 
near  the  Sultan  at  this  critical  moment.  He  seized 
his  master's  bridle,  and  implored  him  to  fight  the 
battle  out.  The  commandant  of  the  Janissaries, 
indignant  at  such  a  breach  of  etiquette,  raised  his 
sword  to  smite  the  unceremonious  Beglerbeg,  when 


JANISSARY   IN  MUFTI, 


'as^^^ 


BATTLE   OF   VARl^^        C^)^^       95 

he  was  himself  cut  down  by  a  Hungarian  sabre. 
Murad's  presence  of  mind  had  failed  him  only  for  a 
moment,  and  he  now  encouraged  his  Janissaries  to 
stand  firm  against  the  Christian  charge.  King  Vladis- 
laus,  on  the  other  side,  fought  gallantly  in  the  thickest 
of  the  strife  ;  but  his  horse  was  killed  under  him,  and 
he  was  then  surrounded  and  overpowered.  He  wished 
to  yield  himself  a  prisoner,  but  the  Ottomans,  indig- 
nant at  the  breach  of  the  treaty,  had  sworn  to  give  no 
quarter.  An  old  Janissary  cut  off  the  king's  head, 
and  placed  it,  helmeted  in  silver,  on  a  pike — a  fearful 
companion  to  the  lance  on  which  the  violated  treaty 
was  still  reared  on  high. 

"  The  Hungarian  nobles  were  appalled  at  the  sight, 
and  their  centre  fled  in  utter  dismay  from  the  field. 
Hunyady,  on  returning  with  his  victorious  right  wing 
vainly  charged  the  Janissaries,  and  strove  at  least  to 
rescue  from  them  the  ghastly  trophy  of  their  victory. 
At  last  he  fled  in  despair  with  the  wreck  of  the  troops 
that  he  had  personally  commanded  and  with  the 
Wallachians  who  collected  round  him.  The  Hun- 
garian rearguard,  abandoned  by  their  commanders, 
was  attacked  by  the  Turks  the  next  morning,  and 
massacred  almost  to  a  man.  Besides  the  Hungarian 
king.  Cardinal  Julian,  the  author  of  the  breach  of 
the  treaty  and  the  cause  of  this  calamitous  campaign, 
perished  at  Varna  beneath  the  Turkish  scimitar, 
together  with  Stephen  Bahory,  and  the  bishops  of 
Eilau  and  Grosswardein."  ^ 

The  result  of  this  decisive  victory  was  the  complete 
subjugation  of  Serbia  and  Bosnia,  which  were  the  more 

^  Creasy,  69-70. 


g6  MURAD  II,  AND  HUNYADY, 

willing  to  re-enter  the  Moslem  dominion  as  they  had 
been  threatened  with  persecution  and  forcible  conver- 
sion to  the  Latin  faith  in  the  event  of  the  triumph  of 
Hunyady.  Murad  again  retired  to  Magnesia;  but 
his  son  was  still  too  young  to  manage  the  empire, 
and  a  revolt  of  the  Janissaries  recalled  the  father  to 
his  responsibilities.  He  did  not  retire  a  third  time, 
but  reigned  for  six  years  in  undiminished  glory,  and 
ionce  more  defeated  his  old  enemy  Hoayady  at  a 
'second  long  contested   battle  at  Kosovo. 

Atlasthedied  in  1451.  "Thus  lieth  great  Amurath," 
writes  Knolles,  compelled  into  a  sort  of  enthusiasm  as 
he  contemplates  the  death  of  the  mighty  Sultan,  "  erst 
not  inferior  unto  the  greatest  monarchs  of  that  age. 
•  .  .  Who  had  fought  greater  battles  ?  who  had  gained 
greater  victories,  or  obtained  more  glorious  triumphs 
than  had  Amurath  ?  who  by  the  spoils  of  so  many 
mighty  kings  and  princes,  and  by  the  conquest  of  so 
many  proud  and  warlike  nations,  again  restored  and 
embellished  the  Turks'  kingdom,  before  by  Tamerlane 
and  the  Tartars  in  a  manner  clean  defaced  ?  He  it 
was  that  burst  the  heart  of  the  proud  Grecians, 
establishing  his  empire  at  Hadrianople,  even  in  the 
centre  of  their  bowels  :  from  whence  have  proceeded 
so  many  miseries  and  calamities  unto  the  greatest 
part  of  Christendom  as  no  tongue  is  able  to  express. 
He  it  was  that  subdued  unto  the  Turks  so  many 
great  countries  and  provinces  in  Asia  ;  that  in  plain 
field  and  set  battle  overthrew  many  puissant  kings 
and  princes,  and  brought  them  under  his  subjection  ; 
who,  having  slain  Vladislaus,  the  King  of  Polonia  and 
Hungary,  and  more  than  once  chased  out  of  the  field 


ST.  JOHN  CAPISTRAN,  97 

Hunyady  that  famous  and  redoubted  warrior,  had  in 
his  proud  and  ambitious  heart  promised  unto  himself 
the  conquest  of  a  great  part  of  Christendom.  .  .  . 
Where  is  that  victorious  hand  that  swayed  so  many 
sceptres  ?  where  is  the  majesty  of  his  power  and 
strength  that  commanded  over  so  many  nations  and 
kingdoms  ?  He  Heth  now  dead,  a  ghastly  carcase,  a 
clod  of  clay  unregarded,  his  hands  closed,  his  eyes 
shut,  his  feet  stretched  out,  which  erst  proudly  traced 
the  countries  by  him  subdued  and  conquered." 

But  the  clod  of  clay  was  not  quite  unregarded  : 
it  was  buried  with  great  solemnity  at  Brusa,  where 
"  he  now  lieth  in  a  chapel  without  any  roof,  his  grave 
nothing  differing  from  the  manner  of  the  common 
Turks  :  which  they  say  he  commanded  to  be  done  in 
his  last  will,  that  the  mercy  and  blessing  of  God 
might  come  unto  him  with  the  shining  of  the  sun  and 
moon  and  falling  of  the  rain  and  dew  upon  his 
grave."  ^ 

Hunyady  survived  the  Sultan  whose  armies  he  had 
so  often  met.  Five  years  after  Murad  had  gone  to 
sleep  with  his  fathers  at  Brusa,  his  son  Mohammed 
laid  siege  to  Belgrade — the  Gate  of  Hungary.  Then 
came  the  crowning  triumph  of  Hunyady's  career. 
He  stirred  up  th<3  garrison  to  a  valiant  defence,  at 
first  by  his  single  efforts ;  but  soon  with  the  aid 
of  a  no  less  heroic  spirit.  John  Capistran  came 
to  his  aid,  followed  by  a  fiery  band  of  60,000  Cru- 
saders, whom  the  monk's  martial  ardour  and  zeal 
for  the  faith  had  gathered  together  to  fight  for  Chris- 
tendom  in   this   hour  of  its   sore   distress.     At  the 

*  Knolles,  i.  227. 


98  MURAD  11.   AND  HUNYADY, 

moment  when  the  Janissaries  had  forced  their  way 
into  the  devoted  city,  Hunyady  and  the  gallant  old 
priest  fell  upon  them  with  the  fury  of  despair ;  and  so 
fierce  was  the  charge  that  the  Turks  fell  back.^ 
Then  the  holy  man,  leading  his  Crusaders  with  a 
glorious  recklessness  straight  to  the  tent  of  the 
$ultan,  and  followed  by  Hunyady  and  the  inspirited 
garrison,  routed  the  Ottomans  so  utterly,  that  they 
pven  abandoned  their  camp  and  artillery  to  the 
Christians  and  fled  for  dear  life.  Mohammed  himself 
was  wounded,  and  25,000  Turks  lay  stretched  upon 
the  field.  Twenty  days  after  this,  Hunyady,  the  hero 
of  many  fields,  died,  and  two  months  later  was  fol- 
lowed to  the  grave  by  John  Capistran,  who  had 
:^een  his  threescore  years  and  ten,  and  had  ended 
them  in  a  flash  of  glory.  He  was  canonized  at  Rome, 
and  all  Christians  must  agree  that  the  noble  old  monk 
had  well  earned  the  veneration  of  all  the  churches  of 
Europe. 

*  See  Vambery,  "TheStoryof  Hungary,"  for  the  Hungarian  account 
of  the  siege. 


lif 


liliillliiilliiilili 


VIL 

THE   FALL   OF   CONSTANTINOPLE. 

(1451-I48L) 

Murad's  long  reign  of  thirty  years  was  soiled  by 
no  breath  of  dishonour  ;  his  character  was  as  noble  as 
It  was  commanding.  His  son  and  successor  Moham- 
med II.,  reigned  also  thirty  years,  but  his  rule  was 
marked  by  violence  and  treachery,  and  the  new 
Sultan,  though  possessed  of  surpassing  ability  and 
intelligence,  had  none  of  the  high  moral  qualities 
that  distinguished  his  father.  Again  and  again  he 
emulated  the  perfidy  of  the  Hungarians  and  broke  a 
solemn  pledge  ;  again  and  again  garrisons  confided 
in  his  honour  only  to  meet  with  ruthless  slaughter. 
His  first  act  was  to  murder  his  baby  brother, 
whose  powers  of  hostility  could  hardly  yet  be 
^langerous  ;  and  it  is  difficult  to  imagine  the  state  of 
mind  of  a  sovereign  who,  granting  the  wisdom  of 
removing  possible  pretenders  to  the  throne,  could 
consistently  carry  out  the  principle  on  the  person  of 
an  infant  at  the  breast. 

Cruel,  perfidious,  and  sensual,  the  new  Sultan  was 
yet,   as   is  not   uncommon  with    Eastern    tyrants,  a 


102  THE   FALL   OF  CONSTANTINOPLE. 

very  cultivated  man,  devoted  to  the  making  of  verse 
and  the  society  of  men  of  learning.  Thirty  Otto- 
man poets  received  pensions  from  this  Turkish  Maece- 
nas, and  he  even  sent  handsome  presents  every  year  to 
the  Indian  Khoja-i-jihan  and  the  Persian  Jam!;  while 
his  liberality  towards  colleges  and  pious  foundations 
was  so  great  that  he  was  given  the  surname  "  Father 
of  Good  Works"  as  well  as  "Sire  of  Victory."  His 
bounty  and  poetic  talent  were  emulated  by  his  great 
officers  ;  and  Mahmud  Pasha,  the  conqueror  of  Negro- 
pont,  was  a  founder  of  colleges  and  a  writer  of  verse. 
It  was  natural  that  the  source  of  all  this  poetic  culti- 
vation should  be  praised  in  song  ;  and  we  learn  from 
panegyrists  that  the  countenance  of  Mohammed  11.  was 
decorated  with  a  pair  of  red  and  white  cheeks,  full  and 
round,  a  hooked  nose,  and  a  resolute  mouth — as  we  see 
in  the  medal  (p.  104) ;  his  moustachios  were  "  like  leaves 
over  two  rosebuds,  and  every  hair  of  his  beard  was  as  a 
thread  of  gold  !  "  ^  Such  encomiums  sound  oddly  in 
European  ears  ;  but  when  the  poets  extolled  Moham- 
med's military  genius  they  were  on  firmer  ground.  As  a 
general  he  was  superior  even  to  his  father  ;  and  his 
famous  reply  to  one  who  asked  him  on  a  campaign 
what  were  his  plans — "  If  a  hair  of  my  beard  knew 
them  I  would  pluck  it  out " — gives  the  key-note  of  his 
success :  absolute  secrecy  and  lightning  rapidity  ot 
action. 

Mohammed  II.  fought  many  battles  and  laid  siege 
to  many  cities,  but  the  siege  which  procured  him  the 
name  of  "  the  Conqueror  "  was  that  of  Constantinople 
in   1453.     It  seemed   as  if  the  Greek   Empire  were 

'  E.  J.  W.  Gil)b,  "  Ott.  Poems,"  171-2. 


MEDAL  OF  MOHAMMED   II. 


MEDAL  OF  MOHAMMED   11.    (rEVERSE). 


THE  BYZANTINE  EMPEkORS.  I07 

doomed  to  precipitate  its  end  by  signal  acts  of  folly 
whenever  a  new  Sultan  came  to  the  throne.  The 
Christians  had  lost  their  opportunity  when  the  Turks 
lay  prostrate  under  the  heel  of  Timur,  and  Europe 
might  have  expelled  the  invaders  once  and  for  ever. 
Europe  preferred  to  wait  till  the  Ottomans  had  re- 
covered all  their  pristine  vigour,  and  then,  on  the 
accession  of  Murad  II.,  Manuel  the  Emperor,  com- 
mitted the  folly  of  setting  up  Mustafa  as  a  claimant 
to  the  throne.  But  for  disturbances  in  his  Asiatic 
provinces,  Murad  would  probably  have  taken  Con- 
stantinople then  and  there.  As  it  was  the  Emperor 
received  a  lesson  that  should  hardly  have  needed 
repetition.  Nevertheless,  after  thirty  years,  during 
which  the  Turks  were  continually  growing  in  power 
and  military  prestige,  the  new  Emperor  Constantine 
Palaeologus,  last  of  his  line,  impelled  by  some  fatal 
frenzy,  seized  the  occasion  of  Murad's  death  to  emu- 
late the  insanity  of  Manuel.  He  threatened  to 
establish  on  the  throne  of  Adrianople  a  grandson-of 
that  Prince  Suleyman  who  had  once  reigned  there  so 
gaily  among  his  wine-cups.  Constantine  was  a  brave 
man,  as  we  shall  see,  but  he  was  not  a  wise  one,  and 
in  this  instance  he  had  laid  too  much  stress  upon  the 
fact  that,  when  Murad  had  abdicated,  the  lad  Moham- 
med had  shown  himself  unequal  to  the  task  of  ruling 
the  wide  empire  of  the  Ottomans.  Six  or  seven  years, 
however,  had  made  a  great  difference  in  the  spirit  and 
resolution  of  the  young  Sultan,  as  Constantine  was 
soon  made  to  understand. 

The  Turks  had   longed   for  the  possession  of  the 
imperial  city  ever  since  Othman  had  dreamed  that  he 


Io8  THE   FALL   OF  CONSTANTINOPLE. 

grasped  it  in  his  hand.  "  Thunderbolt "  BayezTd 
•  had  besieged  it ;  Musa  had  pressed  it  hard  ;  Murad 
II.  had  patiently  planned  its  conquest  There  was 
^little  to  be  won  beside  the  city  itself,  for  all  the 
province  round  about  had  long  been  subdued  by  the 
-  Ottomans  ;  but  the  wealth  and  beauty,  the  strength 
and  position,  of  the  capital  itself  were  quite  enough 
to  make  its  capture  the  crowning  ambition  of  the 
Turks.  Mohammed  eagerly  seized  the  opportunity 
offered  him  by  the  hostility  of  the  unwary  emperor, 
and  immediately  began  to  build  a  fortress  outside  the 
gates  of  Constantinople,  as  the  manner  of  the  Turks 
was.  Mohammed  I.  had  already  erected  the  fortress 
known  as  Anadolu  Hisar,  "The  Castle  of  Anatolia," 
on  the  Asiatic  shore,  to  overawe  the  Emperor  Manuel. 
Mohammed  II.  set  up  the  Rumeli  Hisar,  "  Castle  of 
Rumelia,"  on  the  opposite  side,  as  a  preparation  for  the 
conquest  of  Constantinople,  and  tothcgreat  terror  of  the 
emperor.  A  thousand  masons  and  a  thousand  labourers 
were  devoted  to  the  work  ;  altars  and  pillars  of  Chris- 
tiaTncTfiiTches 'were  used  for  the  walls,  which  were  lliirty 
feet  thick  ;  and  the  castle  was  finished  in  three  months. 
On  the  chief  tower  heavy  ordnance  was  placed  in 
^^  position,  which  cast  stone  balls  of  six  hundredweight, 
an3"a"garfison_of  four  hundred  men  was  established 
with  orders  to  take  toll  from  all  passing  vessels.  The 
CasHc~orRunnielia  stands  to  this  da}-,  facing  its  fellow 
across  the  l^osphorus,  and  lax-pini;-  qiiardo\cr  thestrait. 
The  Turkish  annalist  Sa'd-ud-din  describes  the 
approach  of  the  besieging  army  in  his  turgid  rhymed 
prose,  the  effect  of  which  is  preserved  in  the  following 
translation  by  Mr.  Gibb  : — 


SA'd-UD-DIN,  III 

"  One  morn,  of  fortune  bright,  when  the  van  of  the 
King  of  the  skies  ^  had  appeared  with  the  hosts  of 
light,  from  forth  the  horizon  tower,  from  behind  the 
orient  veil,  the  castle  of  night  to  assail,  did  the  victory- 
shaded  avant-guard  of  the  high  and  lofty  Lord  ^  like- 
wise attain  to  the  foot  of  the  city-wall.  And  behind, 
like  a  boundless  sea,  like  a  hurrying  stream,  the  Im- 
perial host,  the  victory-tended  army,  rolled,  and  did 
the  city  on  the  land-side  enfold.  With  such  sternness 
and  such  firmness  did  they  that  defended  burgh,  which 
of  burghs  is  the  mightiest,  affray,  that  the  footsteps  of 
the  courage  of  the  burghers  went  astray,  and  the  wit 
and  understanding  of  the  wardens  passed  away." 

The^greatest  of  English  historians]  has  told  the 
story  of  the  conquest  of  Constantinople  in  such  a 
manner,  that  subsequent  research  has  succeeded  in 
modifying  almost  nothing  of  his  famous  narrative. 
After  careful  and  detailed  preparations,  the  siege  of 
the  Eastern  metropolis  began  on  April  6,  1453.  We 
quote  from  Gibbon;^ 

"Of  the  triangle  which  composes  the  figure  of 
Constantinople,  the  two  sides  along  the  sea  were 
made  inaccessible  to  an  enemy  ;  the  Propontis  by 
nature,  and  the  harbour  by  art.  Between  the  two 
waters,  the  basis  of  the  triangle,  the  land  side  was 
protected  by  a  double  wall  and  a  deep  ditch  of  the 
depth  of  one  hundred  feet.  Against  this  line  of 
fortification,  which  Phranza,  an  eye-witness,  prolongs 
to  the  measure  of  six  miles,  the  Ottomans  directed 
their  principal  attack  ;  and  the  emperor,  after  distri- 
buting the  service  and  command  of  the  most  perilous 

*  The  sun.  =  The  Sultan.  3  Milman's  ed.  viii.  159  ff. 


112  THE  FALL   OF  CONSTANTINOPLE. 

stations,  undertook  the  defence  of  the  external  wall. 
In  the  first  days  of  the  siege,  the  Greek  soldiers  de- 
scended into  the  ditch  or  sallied  into  the  field;  but  they 
soon  discovered  that  in  the  proportion  of  their  numbers, 
one  Christian  was  of  more  value  than  twenty  Turks ; 
and  after  these  bold  preludes,  they  were  prudently 
content  to  maintain  the  rampart  with  their  missile 
weapons.  Nor  should  this  prudence  be  accused  of 
pusillanimity.  The  nation  was  indeed  pusillanimous 
and  base ;  but  the  last  Constantine  deserves  the  name 
of  a  hero ;  his  noble  band  of  volunteers  was  inspired 
with  Roman  virtue  ;  and  the  foreign  auxiliaries 
supported  the  honour  of  the  Western  chivalry.  The 
incessant  volleys  of  lances  and  arrows  were  accom- 
panied with  the  smoke,  the  sound,  and  the  fire  of  their 
musketry  and  cannon.  Their  small  arms  discharged 
at  the  same  time  either  five  or  even  ten  balls  of  lead, 
of  the  size  of  a  walnut ;  and,  according  to  the  closeness 
of  the  ranks  and  the  force  of  the  powder,  several 
breastplates  and  bodies  were  transpierced  by  the 
same  shot.  But  the  Turkish  approaches  were  soon 
sunk  in  trenches  or  covered  with  ruins.  Each  day 
added  to  the  scene  of  the  Christians  ;  but  their  inade- 
quate stock  of  gunpowder  was  wasted  in  the  operation 
of  each  day.  'Their  ordnance  was  not  powerful, 
either  in  size  or  number ;  and  if  they  possessed  some 
heavy  cannon,  they  feared  to  plant  them  on  the  walls, 
lesTth'e~aged  stnJcfu re" should  be  shaken  and  over- 
fhrown  by  the  explosion.  The  same  destructive 
secreThad  been  revealed  to  the  Moslems,  by  whom  it 
was  employed  with  the  superior  energy  of  zeal,  riches, 
and  despotism.     The  great  cannon  of  Mahomet — an 


BEGINNING   OF  THE   SIEGE.  II3 

important  and  visible  object  in  the  history  of  the 
times — was  flanked  by  two  fellows  almost  of  equal 
magnitude  ;  the  long  order  of  the  Turkish  artillery 
was  pointed  against  the  walls ;  fourteen  batteries 
thundered  at  once  on  the  most  accessible  places. 

"  The  first  random  shots  were  productive  of  more 
sound  than  effect  ;  and  it  was  by  the  advice  of  a 
Christian  that  the  engineers  were  taught  to  level  their 
aim  against  the  two  opposite  sides  of  the  salient 
angles  of  a  bastion.  However  imperfect,  the  weight 
and  repetition  of  the  fire  made  some  impression  on 
the  walls  ;  and  the  Turks,  pushing  their  approaches  to 
the  edge  of  the  ditch,  attempted  to  fill  the  enormous 
chasm,  and  to  build  a  road  to  the  assault.  Innumer- 
able fascines,  and  hogsheads,  and  trunks  of  trees  were 
heaped  on  each  other  ;  and  such  was  the  impetuosity 
of  the  throng,  that  the  foremost  and  the  weakest  were 
pushed  headlong  down  the  precipice, or  instantly  buried 
under  the  accumulated  mass.  To  fill  the  ditch  was 
the  toil  of  the  besiegers  ;  to  clear  away  the  rubbish 
was  the  safety  of  the  besieged  ;  and,  after  a  long  and 
bloody  conflict,  the  web  that  had  been  woven  iA  the 
day  was  still  unravelled  in  the  night.  The  next 
resource  of  Mahomet  was  the  practice  of  min~es  :~5ut 
tlTe  soil  was  rocky  ;  in  every  attempt  he  was  stopped 
and  undermined  by  the  Christian  engineers  ;  nor  had 
the  art  been  yet  invented  of  replenishing  those  sub- 
terraneous passages  with  gunpowder,  and  blowing 
whole  towers  and  cities  into  the  air.  A  circumstance 
that  distinguishes  the  siege  of  Constantinople  is  the 
reunion  of  the  ancient  and  modern  artillery.  The 
cannon  were  intermingled  with  the  mechanical  engines 


114  THE  FALL   OF  CONSTANTINOPLE. 

for   casting   stones   and   darts ;    the   bullet   and   the 
battering-ram  were  directed  against  the  walls.     Nor 
had  the  discovery  of  gunpowder  superseded  the  use 
of  the  liquid  and  unextinguishable  fire.     A  wooden 
turret  of  the  largest  size  was  advanced  on  rollers  ; 
this  portable  magazine  of   ammunition  and  fascines 
was  protected  by  a  threefold  covering  of  bulls'  hides  ; 
incessant  volleys  were  securely  discharged  from  the 
loopholes  ;  in  front,  three  doors  were  converted  for 
the  sally  and  retreat  of  the  soldiers  and  workmen. 
They  ascended  by  a  staircase  to  the  upper  platform  ; 
and,  as  high  as  the  level  of  that  platform,  a  scaling- 
ladder  could  be  raised  by  pulleys  to  form  a  bridge, 
and    grapple   with   the  adverse  rampart.     By   these 
various  arts  of  annoyance,  some  as  new  as  they  were 
pernicious  to  the  Greeks,  the  tower  of  St.  Romanus 
was  at  length  overturned  ;  after  a  severe  struggle,  the 
Turks  were  repulsed  from  the  breach,  and  interrupted 
by  darkness  ;  but  they  trusted  that  with  the  return 
of   light,  they  should    renew   the   attack    with    fresh 
vigour  and  decisive  success.     Of  this  pause  of  action, 
this  interval  of  hope,  each  moment  was  improved  by 
the  activity  of  the  Emperor  and  Justiniani,  whoj>assed 
the   nii;ht  on   the   spot,  and  urged  the  labours,  which 
involved  the  safety  of  the  church  and  city.     At  the 
dawn  of  day,  the   impatient   Sultan  perceived  with 
astonishment  and  grief,  that  his  wooden  turret  liad 
been  reduced  to  ashes  ;    the  ditch  was   cleared  and 
restored^;  and  the  tower  of  St.  Romanus  was  again 
srfong  and   entire.      He  deplored  the  failure  ot    his 
design,  and  uttered  a  profane  exclamation,  that  the 
word   of   the  thirty-seven  thousand  prophets  should 


.       PROGRESS   OF   THE   SIEGE.  II7 

not  have  compelled  him  to  believe  that  such  a  work 
in  so  short  a  time  could  have  been  accomplished  by 
the  infidels." 

At  thjs  point  five  Genoese  ships  forced  the  Turkish 
blockade,  and  brought  provisions  and  relief  to  the 
garrison. 

"  The  introduction  of  this  supply  revived  the  hopes 
of  the  Greeks,  and  accused  the  suspicions  of  their 
Western  allies.  Amidst  the  deserts  of  Anatolia  and 
tlie  rocks  of  Palestine,  the  millions  of  the  Crusades 
had  buried  themselves  in  a  voluntary  and  inevitable 
grave ;  but  the  situation  of  the  imperial  city  was 
strong  against  her  enemies  and  accessible  to  her 
friends  ;  and  a  rational  and  moderate  armament  of 
the  maritime  states  might  have  saved  the  relics  of  the 
Roman  name,  and  maintained  a  Christian  fortress  in 
the  heart  of  the  Ottoman  Empire.  Yet  this  was  the 
sole  and  feeble  attempt  for  the  deliverance  of  Con-j 
stantinople.  The  more  distant  powers  were  insensible 
of  its  danger ;  and  the  Ambassador  of  Hungary,  or 
at  least  of  Huniades,  resided  in  the  Turkish  camp, 
to  remove  the  fears,  and  to  direct  the  operations  of 
the  Sultan. 

"  The  reduction  of  the  city  appeared  to  be  hopeless, 
unless  a  double  attack  could  be  made  from  the  har- 
bour as  well  as  from  the  land  ;  but  the  harbour  was 
inaccessible  ;  an  impenetrable  chain  was  now  de- 
fended by  eight  large  ships,  more  than  twenty  of 
a  smaller  size,  with  several  galleys  and  sloops  ;  and 
instead  of  facing  this  barrier,  the  Turks  might  appre- 
hend a  naval  sally,  and  a  second  encounter  in  the 
open  seas.   In  this  perplexity,  the  genius  of  Mahomet 


Il8  THE   FALL   OF  CONSTANTINOPLE* 

conceived  and  executed  a  plan  of  a  bold  and  marvel 
lous  cast,  oT  transporting-  by  land  his  lighter  vessels 
and  military  stores  from  the  Bosphorus  into  the  Higher 
parFonKe* harbour.  The  distance  is  about  ten  miles  ; 
the  ground  is  uneven, and  was  overspread  with  thickets, 
and  as  the  road  must  be  opened  behind  the  suburb  of 
Galata,  this  free  passage  or  total  destruction  must  de- 
pend on  the  option  of  the  Genoese.  But  these  selfish 
merchants  were  ambitious  of  the  favour  of  being  the 
last  devoured  ;  and  the  deficiency  of  art  was  supplied 
by  the  strength  of  the  obedient  myriads.  A  level  way 
was  covered  with  a  broad  platform  of  strong  and  solid 
planks  ;  and  to  render  them  more  slippery  and  smooth, 
they  were  anointed  with  the  fat  of  sheep  and  oxen. 
Fourscore  eight  galleys  and  brigantines  of  fifty  and 
thirty  oars  were  disembarked  on  the  Bosphorus  shore, 
arranged  successively  on  rollers,  and  drawn  forwards 
by  the  power  of  men  and  pulleys.  Two  guides  or  [)ilots 
were  stationed  at  the  helm  and  the  prow  of  each  vessel; 
the  sails  were  unfurled  to  the  winds  ;  and  theTabour 
was  cheered  by  song  and  acclamation.  In  the  course 
of  a  single  night,  this  Turkish  fleet  painfully  climbed 
the  hill,  steered  over  the  plain,  and  was  launched  from 
the  declivity  into  the  shallow  waters  of  the  harbour, Tar 
above  the  molestations  of  the  deeper  vessels  of  the 
Greeks.  The  real  importance  of  this  operation  was 
magnified  by  the  consternation  and  confidence  which 
it  inspired  ;  but  the  notorious,  unquestionable  fact  was 
displayed  before  the  eyes,  and  is  recorded  by  the  pens, 
of  two  nations.  A  similar  stratagem  has  been  re- 
peatedly practised  by  the  ancients.  The  Ottoman 
galleys  (1  must  again  repeat)  should  be  considered  as 


7  VJS   FLEET   CARRIED   OVER.  Iig 

large  boats,  and  if  we  compare  the  magnitude  and  the 
distance,  the  obstacles,  and  the  means,  the  boasted 
miracle  has  perhaps  been  equalled  by  the  industry  of 
our  own  times.  As  soon  as  Mahomet  had  occupied 
the  upper  harbour  with  a  fleet  and  army,  he  con- 
structed, in  the  narrowest  part,  a  bridge,  or  rather 
mole,  of  fifty  cubits  in  breadth,  and  one  hundred  in 
length  ;  it  was  formed  of  casks  and  hogsheads,  joined 
with  rafters,  linked  with  iron,  and  covered  with  a  solid 
floor.  On  this  floating  battery  he  planted  one  of 
his  largest  cannon,  whilst  the  fourscore  galleys,  with 
troops  and  scaling  ladders,  approached  the  most  ac- 
cessible side,  which  had  formerly  been  stormed  by  the 
Latin  conquerors.  The  indolence  of  the  Christians 
has  been  accused  for  not  destroying  those  unfinished 
works  ;  but  their  fire,  by  a  superior  fire,  was  controlled 
and  silenced  ;  nor  were  they  wanting  in  an  nocturnal 
attempt  to  burn  the  vessels  as  well  as  the  bridge  of  the 
Sultan.  His  vigilance  prevented  their  approach,  their 
foremost  galliots  were  sunk  or  taken  ;  forty  youths, 
the  bravest  of  Italy  and  Greece,  were  inhumanly  mas- 
sacred at  his  command,  nor  could  the  emperor's  grief 
be  assuaged  by  the  just  though  cruel  retaliation  of 
exposing  from  the  walls  the  heads  of  260  Musul- 
mahcaptives.  After  a  siege  of  forty  days  the  fate 
of  Constantinople  could  no  longer  be  averted.  The 
diminutive  garrison  was  exhausted  by  a  double 
attacF:  the  fortifications,  which  had  stood  for  ages 
against  hostile  violence,  were  dismantled  on  all 
sides  by  the  Ottoman  cannon.  Many  breaches  were 
opened,  and  near  the  gate  of  St.  Romanus  four  towers 
had  been  levelled  with  the  ground.     For  the  payment 


120  THE   FALL    OF   CONSTANTINOPLE. 

of  his  feeble  ajid  mutinous  troops,  Constantine  was 
compelled  to  despoil  the  churches  with  the  promise  of 
a  fourfold  restitution  ;  and  his  sacrilege  offereTa  new 
reproach  to  the  enemies  of  the  union.  A  spirit  of 
discord  impaired  the  remnant  of  the  Christian  strength ; 
the  Genoese  and  Venetian  auxiliaries  asserted  the 
preeminence  of  their  respective  service,  and  Justiniani 
and  the  great  duke,  whose  ambition  was  not  extin- 
guished by  the  common  danger,  accused  each  other  of 
treachery  and  cowardice."  .  .  . 

Such  ''was  the  state  of  the  Christians,  who, 
with  loud  and  impotent  complaints,  deplored  the 
guilt,  or  the  punishment  of  their  sins.  The  celestial 
image  of  the  Virgin  had  been  exposed  in  solemn  pro- 
cession ;  but  their  divine  patroness  was  deaf  to  their 
entreaties.  They  accused  the  obstinacy  of  the  em- 
peror for  refusing  a  timely  surrender  ;  anticipated  the 
horrors  of  their  fate,  and  sighed  for  the  repose  and 
security  of  Turkish  servitude.  The  noblest  of  the 
Greeks  and  the  bravest  of  the  allies  were  summoned 
to  the  palace,  to  prepare  them  on  the  evening  of  the 
28th  for  the  duties  and  dangers  of  the  general  assault. 
The  last  speech  of  Palaeologus  was  the  funeral  o^ration 
of  the  Roman  Empire:  he  promised,  he  conjured,  and 
he  vainly  attempted  to  infuse  the  hope  which  was  ex- 
tinguished in  his  own  mind.  In  this  world  all  was 
comfortless  and  gloomy,  and  neither  the  gospel  nor  the 
Church  have  proposed  any  conspicuous  recompense 
to  the  heroes  who  fall  in  the  service  of  their  country. 
But  the  example  of  their  prince  and  the  confinement 
of  a  siege  had  armed  their  warriors  with  the  courage 
of  despair,  and  the  pathetic  scene  is  described  by  the 


DISTRESS   OF   THE   BESIEGED.  121 

feelings  of  the  historian  Phranza,  who  was  himself 
present  at  this  mournful  assembly.  They  wept,  they 
embraced  each  other  ;  regardless  of  their  families  and 
fortunes  they  devoted  their  lives ;  and  each  commander, 
departing  to  his  station,  maintained  all  night  a  vigilant 
and  anxious  watch  on  the  rampart.  The  emperor, 
and  some  faithful  companions,  entered  the  dome  of 
St.  Sophia,  which  in  a  few  hours  was  to  be  converted 
into  a  mosque,  and  devoutly  received  with  tears  and 
prayers  the  sacrament  of  the  holy  communion.  He  re- 
posed some  moments  in  the  palace,  which  resounded 
with  cries  and  lamentations,  solicited  the  pardon  of  all 
whom  he  might  have  injured,  and  mounted  on  horse- 
back to  visit  the  guards  and  explore  the  motions  of  the 
enemy.  The  distress  and  fall  of  the  last  Constantine  are 
more  glorious  than  the  long  prosperity  of  the  Byzantine 
Caesars. 

"  In  the  confusion  of  darkness  an  assailant  may 
sometimes  succeed,  but  in  this  great  and  general 
attack  the  military  judgment  and  astrological  know- 
ledge of  Mahomet  advised  him  to  expect  the  morning, 
the  memorable  29th  May,  in  the  fourteen  hundred 
and  fifty-third  year  of  the  Christian  era.  The  pre- 
ceding night  had  been  strenuously  employed  ;  the 
troops,  the  cannon,  and  the  fascines  were  advanced  to 
the  edge  of  the  ditch,  which  in  many  parts  presented 
a  smooth  and  level  passage  to  the  breach,  and  his 
fourscore  galleys  almost  touched  with  the  prows 
and  their  scaling-ladders  the  less  defensible  walls  of 
their  harbour.  Under  pain  of  death  silence  was 
enjoined,  but  the  physical  laws  of  motion  and  sound 
are  not  obedient  to  discipline  or  fear,  each  individual 


122  THE  FALL   OF  CONSTANTINOPLE, 

might  suppress  his  voice  and  measure  his  footsteps, 
but  the  march  and  labour  of  thousands  must  in- 
evitably produce  a  strange  confusion  of  dissonant 
clamours,  which  reached  the  ears  of  the  watchmen 
of  the  towers. 

"At  daybreak,  without  the  customary  signal  of  the 
morning  gun,  the  Turks  assaulted  the  city  by  sea  and 
land,  and  the  similitude  of  a  twined  or  twisted  thread 
has  been  applied  to  the  closeness  and  continuity  of 
their  line  of  attack.  The  foremost  host  consisted  of 
the  refuse  of  the  ranks,  a  voluntary  crowd  who  fought 
without  order  or  command,  of  the  feebleness  of  age 
or  childhood,  of  peasants  and  vagrants,  and  of  all  who 
had  joined  the  camp  in  the  blind  hope  of  plunder  and 
martyrdom.  The  common  impulse  drove  them  on- 
wards to  the  walls.  The  most  audacious  to  climb 
were  instantly  precipitated  ;  and  not  a  dart,  not  a 
bullet,  of  the  Christians  was  idly  wasted  on  the  accu- 
mulated throngs.  But  their  strength  and  ammunition 
were  exhausted  in  this  laborious  defence.  The  ditch 
was  filled  with  the  bodies  of  the  slain  ;  they  supported 
the  footsteps  of  their  companions,  and  of  this  devoted 
vanguard  the  death  was  more  serviceable  than  the 
life.  Under  their  respective  pashas  and  sanjak-begs 
the  troops  of  Anatolia  and  Rumelia  were  successively 
led  to  the  charge :  their  progress  was  various  and 
doubtful,  but  after  a  conflict  of  two  hours  the  Greeks 
still  maintained  and  improved  their  advantages,  and 
the  voice  of  the  emperor  was  heard  encouraging  his 
soldiers  to  achieve,  by  a  last  effort,  the  deliverance  of 
their  country.  In  that  fatal  moment  the  Janissaries 
arose,  fresh,  vigorous,  and  invincible.  The  Sultan  him- 


THE  ASSAULT,  123 

self  on  horseback,  with  an  iron  mace  in  his  hand,  was 
the  spectator  or  judge  of  their  valour.  He  was  sur- 
rounded by  10,000  of  his  domestic  troops,  whom  he  re- 
served for  the  decisive  occasions,  and  the  tide  of  battle 
was  directed  and  impelled  by  his  voice  and  eye.  His 
numerous  ministers  of  justice  were  posted  behind  the 
line,  to  urge,  to  restrain,  and  to  punish  ;  and  if  danger 
was  in  the  front,  shame  and  inevitable  death  were  in  the 
rear  of  the  fugitives.  The  cries  of  fear  and  of  pain  were 
drowned  in  the  martial  music  of  drums,  trumpets,  and 
attaballs,  and  experience  has  proved  that  the  mecha- 
nical operation  of  sounds,  by  quickening  the  circulation 
of  the  blood  and  spirits,  will  act  on  the  human  machine 
more  forcibly  than  the  eloquence  of  reason  and  honour. 
From  the  lines,  the  galleys,  and  the  bridge,  the  Ottoman 
artillery  thundered  on  all  sides  ;  and  the  camp  and  city, 
the  Greeks  and  the  Turks,  were  involved  in  a  cloud  of 
smoke,  which  could  only  be  dispelled  by  the  final  de- 
liverance or  destruction  of  the  Roman  Empire.  The 
signal  combats  of  the  heroes  of  history  or  fable  amuse 
our  fancy  and  engage  our  affections  ;  the  skilful  evo- 
lutions of  war  may  inform  the  mind,  and  improve  a 
necessary  though  pernicious  science  ;  but  in  the  uni- 
form and  odious  pictures  of  a  general  assault,  all  is 
blood,  and  horror,  and  confusion  ;  nor  shall  I  strive, 
at  the  distance  of  three  centuries  and  1000  miles,  to 
delineate  a  scene  of  which  there  could  be  no  spectators, 
and  of  which  the  actors  themselves  were  incapable  of 
forming  any  just  or  adequate  idea. 

"The  immediate  loss  of  Constantinople  may  be 
ascribed  to  the  bullet,  or  arrow,  which  pierced  the 
gaunflet'dfjohn  Justiniani.      The  sight  of  his  blood, 


124  THE  FALL   OF  CONSTANTINOPLE. 

and  the  exquisite  pain,  appalled  the  courage  of  the 
chief,  whose  arms  and  counsels  were  the  firmest 
ramparts  of  the  city." 

Sa'd-ud-dln  glories  over  the  overthrow  of  this  brave 
captain  in  his  flowery  manner  : — 

"  When  the  Bicorned  Lord  i  of  the  fourth  throne, 
having  risen  from  the  glooms  of  the  west,  had  himself 
addressed  to  subdue  the  castle  of  the  sphere,  and  had 
routed  the  cohorts  of  the  stars  with  his  sabre  and  his 
spear,  did  the  chief  of  the  losel  Franks,  who,  charged 
with  the  guard  of  that  rampart  rent,  thought  to  war 
and  to  fight  with  the  holy  ranks,  mount  on  the  city- 
wall,  meaning  the  holy  legions  to  repel.  Thereon  did 
a  youth  nimble  and  brave,  letting  his  ne'er  oppressing 
glaive  hang  like  the  new  moon  in  the  sky,  climb 
spider-wise,  by  the  rope  of  emprize,  the  city-rampart 
high.  Then  he  raised  his  remorseless  brand,  and 
made  that  awful  flame  the  doom  of  yon  infernal's 
fearful  frame  ;  thus  making  the  gates  of  death,  before 
his  hapless  face,  gape  wide,  even  as  the  rents  in  the 
city's  side  ;  and  putting  to  flight  with  only  one  blow, 
the  owl,  his  soul,  from  its  nest  of  woe  ;  and  cutting 
short,  with  his  life,  the  thread  of  his  thought,  and 
making  his  unseemly  visage  black  as  his  disastrous 
lot.  Soon  as  the  Prankish  crew  saw  their  chief  assume 
this  hue,  did  the  fray  tea:*  its  skirt  from  their  clutch 
away  ;  and  each  sped  along  upon  flight's  highway, 
and  turned  his  face  to  face  dismay  ;  and  they  sought 


'Alexander  the  Great,  so  called  on  account  of  the  two  horns  on  his 
coins.  Here  the  Sun  is  meant,  as  being  tiie  Ruler  of  the  Fourth  Sphere, 
in  the  old  Ptolemaic  astronomy. 


DEATH   OF   CONSTANTINE.  125 

their  ships  in  woe,  running  toward  the  sea,  like  a  river 
swift  of  flow." 

"  The  number  of  the  Ottomans,"  continues  Gibbon, 
"  was  fifty,  perhaps  a  hundred,  times  superior  to  that  of 
the  Christians  ;  the  double  walls  were  reduced  by  the 
cannon  to  a  heap  of  ruins ;  in  a  circuit  of  several  miles 
some  places  must  be  found  more  easy  of  access  or  more 
feebly  guarded  ;  and,  if  the  besiegers  could  penetrate 
in  a  single  point,  the  whole  city  was  irrecoverably 
lost.  The  first  who  deserved  the  Sultan's  reward  was 
Hasan  the  Janissary,  of  gigantic  stature  and  strength. 
With  his  scimitar  in  one  hand  and  his  buckler  in 
the  other,  he  ascended  the  outward  fortifications  ;  of 
the  thirty  Janissaries  who  were  emulous  of  his  valour 
eighteen  perished  in  the  bold  adventure.  Hasan  and 
his  twelve  companions  had  reached  the  summit ;  the 
giant  was  precipitated  from  the  ramparts  ;  he  rose  on 
one  knee,  and  was  again  oppressed  by  a  shower  of 
darts  and  stones.  But  his  success  had  proved  that 
the  achievement  was  possible  ;  the  walls  and  towers 
were  instantly  covered  with  a  swarm  of  Turks  ;  and 
the  Greeks,  now  driven  from  the  vantage  ground 
were  overwhelmed  by  increasing  multitudes.  Amidst 
these  multitudes  the  emperor,  who  accomplished  all 
the  duties  of  a  general,  and  a  soldier,  was  long  seen, 
and  finally  lost.  The  nobles  who  fought  round  his 
person  sustained  till  their  last  breath  the  honourable 
names  of  Palaeologus  and  Cantacuzene  ;  his  mournful 
exclamation  was  heard,  '  Cannot  there  be  found  a 
Christran  to  cut  off  my  head  ? '  and  his  last  fear  was 
that  of  falling  alive  into  the  hands  of  the  infidels.  The 
prudent  despair  of  Constantine  cast  away  the  purple ; 


126  THE    FALL   OF  CONSTANTINOPLE. 

amidst  the  tumult  he  fell  by  an  unknown  hand,  and 
his  body  was  buried  under  a  monument  of  the  slain. 
After  his  death  resistance  and  order  were  no  more  ; 
the  Greeks  fled  towards  the  city,  and  many  were 
pressed  or  stifled  in  the  narrow  pass  of  the  Gate  of  St. 
Romanus.  The  victorious  Turks  rushed  through  the 
breaches  of  the  inner  walls  ;  and,  as  they  advanced 
into  the  streets,  they  were  soon  joined  by  their 
brethren,  who  had  fought  and  forced  the  gate  of 
Phenar  on  the  side  of  the  harbour.  In  the  first  heat 
of  the  pursuit  about  2,000  Christians  were  put  to  the 
sword,  but  avarice  soon  prevailed  over  cruelty  ;  the 
victors  acknowledged  that  they  should  immediately 
have  given  quarter  if  the  valour  of  the  emperor  and 
his  chosen  bands  had  not  prepared  them  for  a  similar 
opposition  in  every  part  of  the  capital.  It  was  thus, 
after  a  siege  of  fifty-three  days,  that  Constantinople, 
which  had  defied  the  power  of  Chosroes,  the  Chakan, 
and  the  Caliphs,  was  irretrievably  subdued  by  the 
arms  of  Mahomet  II.  Her  empire  had  been  sub- 
verted by  the  Latins;  her  reflgion  was  trampled  in 
the  dust  by  her  Moslem  conquerors.  .  .  . 

"  On  the  assurance  of  this  public  calamity  the 
houses  and  convents  were  instantly  deserted,  and 
the  trembling  inhabitants  flocked  together  in  the 
streets  like  a  herd  of  timid  animals,  as  if  accumulated 
weakness  could  be  productive  of  strength,  or  in  the 
vain  hope  that  amid  the  crowd  each  individual  might 
be  safe  and  invisible.  From  every  part  of  the  capital 
they  flowed  into  the  church  of  St.  Sophia ;  in  the 
space  of  an  hour  the  sanctuary,  the  choir,  the  nave, 
the  upper  and  lower  galleries,  were  filled  with  a  mul- 


A   CAPTIVE   CITY,  I29 

titude  of  fathers  and  husbands,  of  women  and  children, 
priests,  monks,  reh'gious  virgins  ;  the  doors  were  barred 
on  the  inside,  and  they  sought  protection  in  the  sacred 
dome. 

*'  While  they  expected  the  descent  of  the  tardy  angel 
the  doors  were  broken  with  axes,  and,  as  the  Turks 
encountered  no  resistance,  their  bloodless  hands  were 
employed  in  selecting  and  securing  the  multitude  of 
their  prisoners.  Youth,  beauty,  the  appearance  of 
wealth,  attracted  their  choice ;  and  the  right  of  property 
was  decided  among  them  by  a  prior  seizure,  by  per- 
sonal strength,  and  by  the  authority  of  command  in 
the  space  of  an  hour.  Male  captives  were  bound  with 
cords,  the  females  with  their  veils  and  girdles  ;  the 
senators  were  linked  with  their  slaves  ;  the  prelates 
with  the  porters  of  the  church  ;  and  young  men  of  a 
plebeian  class  with  noble  maids,  whose  faces  had  been 
invisible  to  the  sun  and  their  nearest  kindred,  and 
in  this  common  captivity  the  ranks  of  society  were 
confounded,  the  ties  of  nature  were  cut  asunder,  and 
the  inexorable  soldier  was  careless  of  the  father's 
groans,  the  tears  of  the  mother,  and  the  lamentations 
of  the  children.  The  loudest  in  their  wailings  were 
the  nuns,  who  were  torn  from  the  altar,  with  naked 
bosoms,  outstretched  hands,  and  dishevelled  hair ; 
and  we  should  piously  believe  that  few  could  be 
tempted  to  prefer  the  vigils  of  the  harem  to  those  of 
the  monastery.  Of  these  unfortunate  Greeks,  of  these 
domestic  animals,  whole  strings  were  rudely  driven 
through  the  streets  ;  and,  as  the  conqueror  was  eager 
to  return  for  more  prey,  their  trembling  pace  was 
quickened  with   menaces  and  blows.      At  the  same 


130  THE  FALL   OF  CONSTANTINOPLE, 

hour  a  similar  rapine  was  exercised  in  all  the  churches 
and  monasteries,  in  all  the  palaces  and  habitations  of 
the  capital  ;  nor  could  any  place,  however  sacred  or 
sequestered,  protect  the  persons  or  the  property  of  the 
Greeks.  Above  60,000  of  this  devoted  people  were 
transported  from  the  city  to  the  camp  or  the  fleet; 
exchanged  or  sold,  according  to  the  interest  or  caprice 
of  their  masters,  and  dispersed  in  remote  servitude 
through  the  provinces  of  the  Ottoman  Empire. 

"  From  the  first  hour  of  the  memorable  29th  of  May 
disorder  and  rapine  prevailed  in  Constantinople  till 
the  eighth  hour  of  the  same  day,  when  the  Sultan 
himself  passed  in  triumph  through  the  gate  of  St. 
Romanus.  He  was  attended  by  his  vezTrs,  pashas, 
and  guards,  each  of  whom  (says  a  Byzantine  historian) 
was  robust  as  Hercules,  dexterous  as  Apollo,  and 
equal  in  battle  to  any  ten  of  the  race  of  ordinary 
mortals.  The  conqueror  gazed  with  satisfaction  and 
wonder  on  the  strange  though  splendid  appearance  of 
the  domes  and  palaces,  so  dissimilar  from  the  style 
of  Ottoman  architecture.  In  the  hippodrome,  or 
At-Meydan,  his  eyes  were  attracted  by  the  twisted 
column  of  the  three  serpents,  and,  as  a  trial  of  his 
strength,  he  shattered  with  his  iron  mace  or  battle- 
axe  the  under  jaw  of  one  of  those  monsters,  which 
in  the  eyes  of  the  Turks  were  the  idols  or  talismans 
of  the  city.  At  the  principal  door  of  St.  Sophia  he 
alighted  from  his  horse  and  entered  the  dome  ;  and 
such  was  his  jealous  regard  for  that  monument  of  his 
glory  that,  on  observing  a  zealous  Moslem  in  the  act 
of  breaking  the  marble  pavement,  he  admonished  him 
with  his  scimitar  that  if  the  spoil  and  captives  were 


ST.  SOPHIA  :  A  MOSQUE.  I3I 

granted  to  the  soldiers,  the  public  and  private  build- 
ings had  been  reserved  for  the  prince.  By  his  command 
the  metropolis  of  the  Eastern  church  was  transformed 
into  a  mosque  ;  the  rich  and  portable  instruments  of 
superstition  had  been  removed  ;  the  crosses  were 
thrown  down  low  ;  and  the  walls,  which  were  covered 
with  images  and  mosaics,  were  washed  and  purified, 
and  restored  to  a  state  of  naked  simplicity.  On  the 
same  day,  or  on  the  ensuing  Friday,  the  muezzin,  or 
crier,  ascended  the  most  lofty  turret,  and  proclaimed 
the  azan  or  public  invitation  in  the  name  of  God  and 
His  Prophet,  the  Imam  preached,  and  Mahomet  II. 
performed  the  7iamdz  thanksgiving  on  the  first  altar, 
where  the  Christian  mysteries  had  so  lately  been  cele- 
brated before  the  last  of  the  Caesars.  From  St.  Sophia 
he  proceeded  to  the  august  but  desolate  mansion  of 
one  hundred  successors  of  the  great  Constantine,  but 
which  in  a  few  hours  had  been  stripped  of  the  pomp 
of  royalty.  A  melancholy  reflection  on  the  vicissi- 
tudes of  human  greatness  forced  itself  upon  his 
mind,  and  he  repeated  an  elegant  distich  of  Persian 
poetry  :  " — ^ 

"  Now  the  spider  draws  the  curtain  in  the  Caesars' palace  hall, 
And  the  owl  proclaims  the  watch  beneath  Afrasiab's  vaulted  dome." 

The  Turkish  historian's  2  account  of  the  fall  of  Con- 
stantinople has  been  faithfully  rendered  by  Mr.  Gibb. 
A  few  extracts  will  suffice  : — 

"  When  by  the  aidance  of  the  One  beyond  gainsay 

*  "  The  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,"  chap.  Ixviii. 
'  Sa'd-ud-din,   "The    Capture   of   Constantinople,"  Glasgow,    1879 
(revised  by  the  translator). 


132  THE   FALL   OF  CONSTANTINOPLE. 

the  strength  of  the  defenders  of  the  burgh  was  passed 
away,  and  the  happy  tidings  :  *  Verily,  our  hosts,  the 
conquerors  are  they  ! '  ^  were  become  the  stock  of  the 
support  of  the  victory- crowned  array,  the  gladness- 
fraught  address,  *  Enter  ye  in  peace ! '  ^  sounded  in 
the  ear  of  the  army  of  the  Fay.  With  leave  from  the 
threshold  of  the  world-conquering  King  to  plunder 
and  to  spoil,  did  those  eager  after  booty  into  the  city 
sweep,  where,  laying  hands  on  their  families  and  their 
wealth,  they  made  the  worthless  misbelievers  weep. 
They  acted  by  the  order  :  '  Slaughter  their  elders  and 
capture  their  youth  ; '  and  those  profitful  properties, 
which  in  the  days  of  old,  the  years  that  are  told,  had 
been  unstrick^n  of  the  hand  of  profligacy,  became  the 
portion  of  the  champions  of  the  Truth.  And  that  fair 
and  fruitful  site,  through  the  advent,  twin  of  delight, 
of  the  Sovereign,  just  of  spright,  became  the  home  of 
flashing  light,  of  the  stead  of  the  Faith  of  Right.  .  .  . 
"  And  so  that  spacious  land,  that  city  strong  and 
grand,  from  being  the  seat  of  hostility,  became  the 
scat  of  the  currency  ;  and  from  being  the  nest  of  the 
owl  of  shame,  became  the  threshold  of  glory  and  of 
fame.  Through  the  fair  efforts  of  the  Moslem  King, 
in  the  place  of  the  ill-toned  voice  of  the  graceless 
paynim's  bell,  were  heard  the  Mohammedan  screed, 
and  the  five-fold  chant  of  the  Ahmed!  creed,  noble  of 
rite  ;  and  the  harmony  fair  of  the  call  to  prayer  on 
the  ears  of  all  men  fell.  .  .  .  The  temples  of  the 
paynims  were  made  the  mosques  of  the  pious  ;  and 
the  rays  of  the  radiance  of  Islam  drave  the  hordes  of 
gloom  forth  from  that  ancient  home  of  the  heathen 

*  Koran,  xxxvii.  173.  '  Ibid.  xv.  46,  and  1.  ^^. 


SKANDERBEG.  I33 

reprobate,  and  the  gleaming  of  the  dawn  of  the  Faith 
did  the  darkness  of  the  tyranny  of  the  accursed  dissi- 
pate ;  and  the  mandate,  strong  as  fate,  of  the  Sultan 
fortunate,  was  supreme  in  the  ordinance  of  that  new 
estate." 

The  conquest  of  Constantinople  is  the  great  event 
of  Mohammed's  reign.  Yet  it  was  by  no  means  his 
sole  achievement.  He  overthrew  the  Wallachian 
tyrant,  Ylaj^^he  Impaler,  and  completed  the  final 
annexation  of  Serbia  and  Bosnia.  The  king  of  Bosnia 
and  his  sons  capitulated  on  promise  of  their  lives  being 
spared  ;  but  Mohammed  had  this  promise  annulled 
by  the  chief  Mufti  or  Mohammedan  judge  ;  and  this 
spiritual  magistrate  actually  hacked  the  king  down  in 
the  Sultan's  presence,  with  the  treaty  of  capitulation 
in  his  hand. 

It  was  the  violation  of  the  Szegedin  Treaty  re- 
versed. Mohammed,  however,  did  not  greatly  ad- 
vance the  Ottoman  frontier  in  the  north.  He  laid 
siege  to  Belgrade,  but  was  ignominiously  repulsed  by 
Hunyady  and  St.  John  Capistran,  as  has  been  already 
related,  and  after  Hunyady 's  death  his  son  Matthias 
Corvinus,  at  the  head  of  his  famous  "  Black  Troop,' 
was  strong  enough  to  hold  the  Turks  at  bay.  In 
Albania,  too,  the  Sultan  met  opposition  which  neither 
his  father  nor  he  was  able  to  overcome.  For  in  Epirus 
had  risen  a  patriot  warrior,  no  less  famous  and  valiant 
than  Hunyady.  This  was  Skanderbeg,  the  national 
hero  of  the  Epirots.  His  proper  name  was  George 
of  Castriota,  and  he  belonged  to  a  princely  family 
of  Epirus.  As  a  boy  he  had  been  sent  as  a  hostage 
to  the  court  of  Murad  II.,  where  his  high  bearing  and 


134  ^^^  ^^^^   ^^  CONSTANTINOPLE, 

courage  soon  won  him  the  Sultan's  favour.  He  was 
converted  to  Islam,  and  Murad  treated  him  like  his 
own  son  and  advanced  him  to  high  rank  in  the  army, 
where  he  acquired  the  name  of  Skanderbeg  (properly 
Iskender  Beg),  or  "  Prince  Alexander." 

Skanderbeg,  however,  though  petted  by  the  Sultan, 
was  not  satisfied  with  being  sent  in  chief  command  of 
an  army  into  Asia,  or  with  holding  high  posts  in  the 
wars  with  Hungary  :  he  wished  to  rule  his  own  country, 
and  he  ungratefully  seized  an  opportunity  to  desert 
from  the  Sultan's  forces,  and  to  obtain  by  stratagem 
possession  of  Croia,  the  chief  city  of  Epirus.  He  privily 
seized  the  Sultan's  secretary,  made  him  write  in  his 
master's  name  an  order  to  the  governor  of  Croia  to 
surrender  the  place,  and  then  ran  the  luckless  scribe 
through  the  body.  The  governor  suspected  nothing 
and  surrendered  the  keys,  and  Skanderbeg,  once  in 
command  of  the  town,  massacred  the  Turks,  renounced 
Mohammedanism,  and  called  the  Epirots  to  arms. 
During  the  rest  of  the  reign  of  Murad,  and  most  of 
his  successor's,  Skanderbeg  held  the  mountains  of 
Epirus  against  all  comers.  Murad  sent  three  Turkish 
armies  against  him,  and  all  three  were  disgracefully 
routed.  The  old  Sultan  himself  had  experienced  the 
like  misfortune  when  his  mortal  illness  seized  him  at 
Adrianople.  Mohammed  was  no  more  successful  than 
his  father ;  but  personal  admiration  and  perhaps  old 
ties  of  friendship  may  have  made  the  attacks  of  both 
Sultans  somewhat  half-hearted.  It  is  certain  that  they 
would  willingly  have  left  Skanderbeg  alone  in  consider- 
ation of  a  payment  of  tribute.  The  Epirot,  however, 
declined  to  pay  tribute  ;  on  the  contrary,  he  exacted  a 


WAR    WITH   VENICE.  I35 

handsome  revenue  out  of  the  terrified  towns  of  Mace- 
donia and  Thessaly.  Eventually  Mohammed,  after 
fruitless  endeavours  to  oust  the  rebel  from  the  fast- 
nesses he  knew  so  well  how  to  defend,  was  forced  to 
make  a  treaty  by  which  he  acknowledged  Skanderbeg 
as  prince  of  Epirus  and  Albania.  This  was  in  1461  ; 
and  six  years  later  the  gallant  condottiere  died,  worA 
out  with  a  quarter  of  a  century  of  perpetual  warfare 
He  died  game  ;  for  his  last  act  was  to  defeat  an  army 
which  Mohammed  had  sent  out  against  him  with 
positive  instructions  to  conquer  the  land.  After 
Skanderbeg's  death,  the  Sultan  easily  subdued 
Albania,  though  the  lawless  character  of  the  people 
has  made  it  a  difficult  country  to  rule  to  this  present 
day. 

The  work  of  Skanderbeg  was  important,  not  so  much 
in  its  local  influence,  as  in  the  bulwark  it  set  up  against 
Ottoman  advance  in  the  direction  of  Italy.  Just  as 
Hunyady  and  St.  John  Capistran  set  a  northern 
limit  to  the  Turks  for  a  while,  so  Skanderbeg  fixed 
their  boundary  on  the  west.  No  sooner  was  the 
barrier  removed  than  we  find  them  contemplating  the 
invasion  of  Venice.  The  maritime  Republic  had  long 
cringed  before  the  Turkish  Sultan,  and  had  signed  a 
humble  peace  in  1454 ;  but  the  successes  of  Skanderbeg 
had  roused  its  spirit,  and  after  his  death  it  was 
punished  for  its  temerity.  After  six  years'  war  the 
Ottoman  troops  in  1477  pushed  so  far  west  that  they 
crossed  the  Tagliomento  and  reached  the  banks  of  the 
Piave.  The  smoking  ruins  that  marked  their  progress 
could  be  seen  from  the  palaces  of  the  Queen  of  the 
Adriatic.     Venice  hastily  concluded  a  treaty  offensive 


136  THE  FALL   OF  CONSTANTINOPLE. 

and  defensive  with  Mohammed  in  1479,  but  he  had 
already  taken  from  her  the  island  of  Euboea  or  Negro- 
pont,  the  governor  of  which  surrendered  the  citadel 
after  a  long  and  desperate  siege  by  Mahmud  Pasha  in 
1470,  on  condition  of  safety  to  the  garrison  ;  whereupon 
Mohammed,  after  his  treacherous  manner,had  marched 
the  garrison  out  and  put  them  to  death,  sawed  the 
governor  in  two,  and  murdered  his  daughter  because 
she  refused  dishonour.  Greece  and  the  islands  of  the 
Aegean  were  now  mainly  in  the  power  of  the  Turks  ; 
on  the  Black  Sea,  Sinope  and  Trebizond  had  been 
Iconquered,  and  David  Comnenus,  who  reigned  in 
the    latter    city,    had    been    treacherously  executed  ; 

iand  in  1475  the  Crimea  was  taken  from  the  descend- 
ants of  Chingiz  Khan,  by  Mohammed's  admiral, 
the  Grand  VezTr  Gedik  Ahmed.  Rhodes  was  besieged 
in  1480,  but  the  Knights  were  better  prepared  than 
they  had  been  when  Timur  expelled  them  from 
Smyrna.  After  a  tedious  siege  the  Turks  made 
their  great  assault  ;  but,  either  discouraged  by  the 
obstinacy  of  the  Knights,  or  irritated  by  the  pro- 
clamation that  the  spoils  of  the  city  were  to  be 
reserved  for  the  Sultan  himself,  the  soldiery  wavered, 
and  the  Knights,  driving  them  furiously  back,  forced 
Ithem  to  raise  the  siege.  Nevertheless,  the  command 
lof  the  seas  rested  to  a  large  extent  with  the  Turks. 
They  had  most  of  the  Levantine  islands  ;  their 
castles  commanded  the  Hellespont  and  the  Bos- 
phorus,  so  that  Loredano  vainly  sought  to  force  a 
passage.  The  Sea  of  Marmora  was  closed  to  European 
vessels,  and  the  Genoese  ports  in  the  Crimea  and  Sea 
of  Azov  were  of  little  value  now  that  their  communi- 


;' 


OTRANTO.  139 

cations  were  severed  ;  and,  as  Admiral  Jurien  de  la 
Graviere  observes,^  it  was  hardly  necessary  for  Mo- 
hammed to  send  a  fleet  of  three  hundred  sail  to  eject 
them  in  1475.  With  such  advantages,  the  Turks  were 
able  to  contest  the  seas  with  the  galleys  of  Venice  and 
Rhodes. 

The  day  that  saw  the  failure  of  the  storming  of 
Rhodes  was  rnarked  by  a  notable  event  further  west. 
Gedik  Ahmed,  on  the  28th  of  July,  1480,  landed  on 
the  southern  coast  of  Italy  and  stormed  the  castle  of 
Otranto,  near  Brindisi,  a  fortnight  later.  Most  of  the 
inhabitants  were  massacred,  and  the  Ottoman  foot  was 
planted  in  the  Western  Empire.  Next  year  Moham- 
med was  preparing  an  immense  expedition,  whither 
destined  no  man  knew  but  he,  when  he  suddenly  died. 
It  is  hard  to  say  what  might  have  happened  had  he 
lived  another  year.  The  capture  of  Otranto  might 
have  been  followed  by  the  sack  of  Rome.  Sed  Dis 
aliter  visum.  The  death  of  the  Conqueror  saved 
Europe. 

*  "  Doria  et  Barberousse,"  32. 


VIII. 

PRINCE    JEM. 

(1481-1512.) 

The  long  reign  of  BayezTd  II.  (1481-1512)  which 
surpassed  that  of  his  father  and  grandfather,  so  that 
the  three  together  nearly  completed  a  century,  was 
marked  by  a  general  lethargy  and  incapacity  on  the 
part  of  the  Turkish  Government.  Bayezld  himself 
possessed  none  of  the  energy  and  ambition  of 
Mohammed,  and  was  not  only  unequal  to  the  task 
of  carrying  on  his  father's  plans,  but  had  enough 
to  do  to  keep  what  he  had  inherited.  His  authority 
was  weakened  by  the  attacks  of  the  Mamluks  of 
Egypt,  who  for  fiv^e  years  waged  successful  war  upon 
the  Turks  in  Asia ;  and  by  insurrections  in  Karaman 
and  other  parts,  where  the  Shia  doctrines  of  the  new 
Sufi  dynasty  of  Persia  found  adherents  in  the  dis- 
contented descendants  of  the  Seljuk  princes.  BayezTd 
made  no  attempt  to  extend  his  boundary  in  the 
direction  of  Hungary ;  and  though  Lepanto  and 
Modon,  in  Greece,  were  added  (in  1500)  to  the 
Turkish  Empire,  and  two  castles  were  built  to  com- 
mand the  Gulf  of  Patras,  the  bold  adventure  that  had 
planted  the  Turkish  flag  on  Italian  soil  was  rendered 


BAYEZID  II,  141 

nugatory  by  the  recall  of  Gedik  Ahmed  and  the  loss  of 
Otranto.  The  Sultan's  later  years  were  disturbed  by 
the  rivalries  and  insubordination  of  his  three  sons,  of 
whom  the  most  unscrupulous  managed  to  induce  his 
incompetent  old  father  to  abdicate  in  his  favour,  and 
the  victorious  Sellm  accordingly  ascended  the  throne  I 
in  1 5 12.  Family  dissensions  were  indeed  the  leading 
incidents  of  Bayezld's  reign,  and  for  many  years  he 
was  kept  in  a  state  of  anxious  uncertainty  by  the 
ingenious  intrigues  of  the  Christian  Powers  concern- 
ing the  custody  of  his  brother,  the  unfortunate  Prince 
Jem. 

The  adventures  of  Prince  Jem  (the  name  is  short 
for  Jemshid,  but  in  Europe  it  has  been  written  Zizim) 
cast  a  very  unpleasant  light  upon  the  honour  of  the 
Christians  of  his  time,  and  especially  upon  the 
Knights  of  Rhodes.  Of  the  two  sons  of  Mohammed 
II.  Jem  was  undoubtedly  the  one  who  was  by  nature 
fitted  to  be  his  successor.  Instead  of  the  melancholy 
dreamy  mystic  who  was  incapable  of  walking  in  the 
proud  steps  of  his  father,  this  other  son  had  all 
Mohammed's  energy  and  vigour,  his  grace  and  cul- 
ture, his  ambition  and  imperious  pride  ;  and  but 
for  the  accident  that  Bayezld  was  the  first  to  reach 
Constantinople  after  the  death  of  the  Conqueror,  and  ; 
was  thus  able  to  secure  the  support  of  the  Janissaries  \ 
with  the  customary  largesse,  it  might  have  been  that  \ 
in  the  hands  of  Jem  the  Ottoman  Empire  would  have 
continued  on  its  triumphant  course  and  pushed  its 
conquests  in  Europe  in  the  same  spirit  that  had 
animated  his  ancestors.  Jem,  however,  was  not  the 
first  to  hear  of  his  father's  death,  and  a  year's  warfare 


142  PRINCE  JEM. 

against  his  brother  ended  in  his  own  defeat.  The 
younger  prince  then  sought  refuge  with  the  Knights 
of  Rhodes,  who  promised  to  receive  him  hospitably 
and  to  find  him  a  way  to  Europe,  where  he  intended 
to  renew  his  opposition  to  his  brother's  authority. 

D'Aubusson,  the  Grand  Master  of  Rhodes,  however, 
was  too  astute  a   diplomatist  to    sacrifice   the   solid 
gains  that  he  perceived  would  accrue  to  his  Order 
for  the  sake  of  a  few  paltry  twinges  of  conscience  ; 
and  he  had  no    sooner  made   sure  of   Prince  Jem's 
person,  and  induced  him  to  sign  a  treaty,  by  which, 
in  the  event  of  his  coming  to  the  throne,  the  Order 
was  to  reap  many  sterling  advantages,  than  he  ingen- 
iously opened  negotiations  with  Sultan  BayezTd,  with 
a  view  to  ascertain  how  much  gold-  that  sovereign  was 
'.willing  to  pay  for  the  safe  custody  of  his  refractory 
brother.     It  is  only  fair  to  say  that  Bayezld,  who  had 
no  particle  of  cruelty  in  his  nature,  did  all  he  could 
to  come  to  terms  with  Jem.      He  had    indeed  been 
stern  and  uncompromising  while  his  brother  was   in 
open   hostility,  and  to  the  entreaty  of   their  grand- 
aunt  that  he  would  be   gentle   and    accommodating 
to   his   own    flesh   and    blood,   he   had    replied   that 
"  there  is  no  kinship  among   princes  ; "   yet  had    he 
offered  to  restore  to  his  brother  the   profits,  though 
not  the  power,  of  the  province  of  Karaman,  whi^h  Jem 
had  formerly  governed,  on  condition  that  he  should 
retire  and  live  peaceably  at  Jerusalem.    Jem,  hcwcver, 
would  have  nothing  less  than  independent  authority^ 
and  this  the  Sultan  could  not  be  expected  to  allow. 
"  Empire,"  said  he,  "  is  a  bride  whose  favours  r.annot 
be  shared."     Ail  negotiation  and  compromise  having 


BATTLE   WITH   PRINCE  JEM. 


THE   GRAND   MASTER   OF   RHODES,  145 

proved  ineffectual,  he  listened  to  the  proposals  of  the 
crafty  Grand  Master,  and  finally  agreed  to  pay  him 
45,000  ducats  a  year,  so  long  as  he  kept  Jem  under 
his  surveillance. 

The  Knights  of  St  John  possessed  many  com- 
manderies,  and  the  one  they  now  selected  for  Jem's 
entertainment  was  at  Nice,  in  the  south  of  France. 
In  1482  he  arrived  there,  wholly  unconscious  of 
the  plots  that  were  being  woven  about  him.  Here,  | 
being  something  of  a  poet,  he  wrote  his  famous  ode 
beginning — 

*'  Quaff,  O  Jem,  thy  Jemshid  beaker  ;  lo,  the  land  of  Frankistan  ! 
This  is  fate  j  and  what  is  written  on  his  brow  shall  'tide  to  man."  * 

He  desired  to  start  at  once  for  Hungary,  whence 
he  proposed  to  raise  his  adherents  in  Turkey.  But/ 
he  was  gently  restrained  from  his  purpose.  On  one 
pretext  or  another  the  knights  contrived  to  keep  their 
prisoner  at  Nice  for  several  months,  and  then  trans- 
ferred him  to  Rousillon,  thence  to  Puy,  and  next  to 
Sassenage,  where  the  monotonies  of  captivity  were 
relieved  by  the  delights  of  love,  which  he  shared  with 
the  daughter  of  the  commandant,  the  beautiful  Phili- 
pine  Helene,  his  lawful  spouse  being  fortunately  away 
in  Egypt.  The  last  device  of  the  knights,  when  such 
friendships  made  captivity  precarious,  was  to  build  a 
lofty  tower  for  their  valuable  prey,  of  which  the  seven 

*  E.  J.  W.  Gibb,  "  Ottoman  Poems,"  175  (revised).     The  reader  may 
be  interested  to  see  the  original — 

**  Jam-i-Jem  nush  eyle,  ey  Jem,  bu  Firankistan  dir  ; 
Her  kulun  bashina  yazilan  gelir,  devran  dir." 


146  PRINCE  JEM, 

Stories  were  entirely  arranged  with  the  object  of  the 
prisoner's  safe  custody. 

Meanwhile,  Grand  Master  D'Aubusson  was  driving 
a  handsome  trade  in  his  capacity  of  jailor.  All 
the  potentates  of  Europe  were  anxious  to  obtain 
possession  of  the  claimant  to  the  Ottoman  throne, 
and  were  ready  to  pay  large  sums  in  hard  cash  to 
enjoy  the  privilege  of  using  this  specially  dangerous 
instrument  against  the  Sultan's  peace.  D'Aubusson 
was  not  averse  to  taking  the  money,  but  he  did  not 
wish  to  give  up  his  captive  ;  and  his  knightly  honour 
felt  no  smirch  in  taking  20,000  ducats  from  Jem's 
desolate  wife  (who  probably  had  not  heard  of  the  fair 
Helene)  as  the  price  of  her  husband's  release,  while 
he  held  him  all  the  tighter.  Of  such  chivalrous 
stuff  were  made  the  famous  knights  of  Rhodes : 
and  of  such  men  as  D'Aubusson  the  Church  made 
cardinals ! 

A  new  influence  now  appeared  upon  the  scene  of 
Jem's  captivity.  Charles  VIII.  of  France  considered 
that  the  Grand  Master  had  made  enough  profit  out 
of  the  unlucky  prince,  and  the  king  resolved  to  work 
the  oracle  himself  His  plan  was  to  restore  Jem  to  a 
nominal  sultanate  by  the  aid  of  Matthias  Corvinus^ 
Ferdinand  of  Naples,  and  the  Pope.  He  took  Jem 
out  of  the  hands  of  the  knights  and  transferred 
him  to  the  custody  of  Innocent  VIII.,  who  kindly 
i consented  to  take  care  of  the  prince  for  the  sum 
of  40,000  ducats  a  year,  to  be  paid  by  his  grateful 
brother  at  Constantinople.  Bayezld  was  greatly  im- 
pressed by  the  Pope's  friendly  feeling,  and  received 
his  ambassador  with  enthusiasm.      All  the  time  these 


^^^^i 


mm^mmmm 


^-^ 


INNOCENT  VIII,  149 

negotiations  were  proceeding  the  good  Pope,  like 
many  worthy  knights  and  holy  prelates  before,  had 
condoled  with  Prince  Jem  on  his  unhappy  fate,  and 
had  drawn  him  bright  pictures  of  the  future,  when  he 
should  stand  side  by  side  with  Matthias  Corvinus, 
the  gallant  king  of  Hungary,  in  the  great  campaign 
that  was  to  be  made  against  the  Turks  in  order  to 
set  the  injured  prince  upon  his  father's  throne  at 
Constantinople.  Nothing  could  be  more  consolatory 
than  the  promises  and  hopes  of  all  the  kindly  Chris- 
tian kings  and  princes  who  visited  Jem  in  his  thirteen 
long  years  of  captivity  ;  but  none  of  them  reaped, 
though  all  sought,  so  rich  a  reward  as  the  large- 
minded  and  large-pocketed  Grand  Master  of  Rhodes 
and  the  solicitous  and  amiable  Pope.  Unfortunately 
Innocent  did  not  live  long  enough  to  turn  Jem  to  all 
the  account  he  had  anticipated  ;  but  his  successor, 
Alexander  Borgia,  was  not  the  man  to  be  cheated 
out  of  his  bargain  by  such  an  accident  as  death.  He 
began  negotiations  at  Constantinople,  whither  he 
sent  a  special  ambassador,  to  extract  a  capital  sum 
in  return  for  Prince  Jem's  proposed  removal  to  a 
world  more  congenial  to  his  many  virtues ;  he  en- 
deavoured, in  short,  to  get  the  lump  sum  of  300,000 
ducats  for  the  assassination  of  his  prisoner.  Just  at 
this  point  of  the  negotiations,  Charles,  the  king  of 
France,  invaded  Italy,  entered  Rome,  and,  among 
other  terms,  demanded  the  cession  of  Jem,  who( 
was  accordingly,  with  a  very  wry  face,  given  up  to 
him.  But  poor  Jem  was  not  destined  much  longer 
to  be  tossed  about  from  jailor  to  jailor.  The 
Pope,   either    in    pursuance   of    an    agreement   with 


150  PRINCE  JEM. 

BayezTd,  or  more  probably  because  a  Borgia  could 
not  help  it,  had  the  unfortunate  Turk  poisoned  be- 
fore he  left  the  country.  How  it  was  done  is  not 
certain — the  scratch  of  a  poisoned  razor,  or  a  harm- 
less white  powder  introduced  into  his  sherbet,  are 
two  of  the  theories  ;  but  some  there  are  who  say 
that  he  died  of  mere  misery  and  weariness  of  life — 
such  weariness  as  he  expresses  in  his  melancholy 
verse  : — 

*'  Lo  !  there  the  torrent,  dashing  'gainst  the  rocks,  cloth  wildly  roll ; 
See  how  all  nature  rueth  on  my  worn  and  wearied  soul ! 
Through  bitterness  of  grief  and  woe  the  morn  hath  rent  its  robe  ; 
liehold,  in  dawning's  stead,  the  sky  weeps  blood  beyond  control  ! 
Tears  shedding,  o'er  the  mountain  tops  the  clouds  of  heaven  pass  ; 
List,  deep  the  bursting  thunder  sobs  and  moans  through  stress  of 
dole  ! " » 

The  balance  of  probability,  however,  inclines  towards 
poison,  and  Alexander  Borgia  has  so  many  crimes 
on  the  place  where  his  conscience  should  have  been, 
that  it  can  do  him  no  harm  to  bear  one  murder  more. 
The  curious  conclusion  one  draws  from  the  whole 
melancholy  tale  is  that  there  was  not  apparently  a 
single  honest  prince  in  Christendom  to  take  compas- 
sion upon  the  captive  ;  nor  one  to  reprobate  the  un- 
generous and  venal  intrigues  of  the  Grand  Master, 
the  Pope,  and  Charles  VIII.  Each  contended  with 
the  other  for  the  prize  of  perfidy  and  shame.  BayezTd 
may  be  excused  for  his  desire  to  see  his  brother  in 
safe  keeping  ;  but  what  can  be  said  for  the  head  of 
the  Christian  Church,  and  the  leader  of  an  Order  of 
!  religious  knights,  who   eagerly  betrayed    a   helpless 

1  »  E.  J.  W.  Gibb,  "  Ott.  Poems,"  20  (revised). 


CHRISTIAN  CHIVALRY? 


151 


refugee  for  the  sake  of  the  infidel's  gold  ?  When  we 
come  to  read  of  the  heroism  of  the  Knights  of  Rhodes 
and  Malta,  it  may  be  well  to  recall  the  history  of 
Prince  Jem,  and  to  weigh  well  the  chivalry  that 
could  fatten  upon  such  treason. 


IX. 

THE  CONQUEST  OF   EGYPT. 

(1 5 1 2-1 520.} 


When  Sellm  I.  had  deposed  his  father  BayezTd, 
who  did  not  long  survive  his  humiliation,  he  re- 
solved that  the  trouble  and  anxiety  of  another 
Prince  Jem  should  not  disturb  his  own  reign.  His 
father  had  had  eight  sons,  of  whom  two,  besides 
himself,  were  still  alive,  and,  including  grandsons, 
there  were  no  less  than  eleven  dangerous  persons  to 
be  made  away  with.  "  Sellm  the  Grim,"  as  the  Turks 
still  call  him,  did  not  shrink  from  the  task  ;  he 
delighted  in  blood,  whether  it  were  that  of  animals 
slain  in  the  chase,  to  which  he  was  passionately 
addicted,  or  that  of  his  enemies  on  the  battle-field  ; 
and  the  bloodless  slaughter  by  the  bow-string, 
which  is  the  privilege  of  the  progeny  of  Othman, 
was  hardly  sufficiently  exciting  for  this  sanguinary 
tyrant,  whose  fierce  blazing  eyes  and  choleric  com- 
plexion well  accorded  with  his  violent  nature.  He 
watched  from  an  adjoining  room  the  ghastly  scene, 
when  the  mutes  strangled  his  five  orphan  nephews, 
and  the  resolute  resistance  of  the  eldest  and  the 
piteous  entreaties  of  the  little  ones  could  not  move 


SELIM   THE   GRIM.  I53 

him  from  his  cruel  purpose.  The  rest,  save  two,  were 
soon  captured  and  strangled.  His  brother,  Prince 
Korkud,  begged  for  an  hour's  grace,  and  spent  it  in 
composing  a  reproachful  poem  addressed  to  Sellm, 
which  the  Sultan  afterwards  perused  with  tears.  It 
was  no  doubt  the  elegance  of  the  verse  that  moved 
him,  rather  than  the  fate  of  the  poet  ;  for  Sellm,  like 
so  many  of  his  race,  was  devoted  to  letters  and  poetry. 
He  wrote  a  volume  of  Persian  odes,  liberally  rewarded 
men  of  learning,  and  when  he  went  on  a  campaign 
liked  to  take  with  him  historians  and  bards,  who 
should  record  the  events  of  the  war  and  cheer  its 
progress  by  reciting  the  great  deeds  of  yore.  The 
combination  of  a  high  degree  of  intellectual  culture 
with  cruel  and  savage  barbarity  is  one  of  the  com- 
monplaces of  history. 

Sellm  had  no  intention  of  pursuing  the  inactive 
policy  of  his  father ;  but  he  turned  his  eyes  in  a 
different  direction  from  his  remoter  predecessors. 
Murad,  BayezTd,  and  Mohammed  had  pushed  the 
frontier  to  the  north  and  the  west  ;  Sellm  would 
conquer  the  east  and  the  south.  He  received  cour- 
teously the  ambassadors  who  came  to  offer  him 
congratulations  on  the  part  of  the  Doge  of  Venice, 
the  King  of  Hungary,  the  Czar  of  Russia,  and  the 
Mamluk  Sultan  of  Egypt.  He  had  no  intention  for 
the  present  of  quarrelling  with  any  of  them.  His 
care  was  first  directed  to  the  state  of  affairs  on  his 
eastern  frontier,  where  there  was  imminent  danger 
of  a  serious  invasion.  The  Sefevi  Shah  Ismail, 
founder  of  the  Sufi  line,  had  triumphed  over  the 
various  local  dynasties  that  had  partitioned  the  pro- 


^ 


154  THE   CONQUEST  OF  EGYPT, 

vinces  of  Persia  among  themselves,  ever  since  the 
break  up  of  the  Mongol  kingdom. 

Hulagu,  the  conqueror  of  Baghdad,  and  grandson  of 
Chingiz  Khan,  had  in  the  thirteenth  century  exter- 
minated the  Abbaside  Khali  fate  in  all  but  name,  and 
substituted  his  own  sway  for  that  of  the  numerous 
petty  dynasties  who  at  that  time  held  rule  in  Persia 
and  the  country  round  about.  His  dynasty,  called 
the  Ilkhans,  lasted  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  years, 
and  their  dominions  then  became  a  prey  to  the  feuds 
between  various  Tartar  and  Kurdish  chiefs,  of  whom 
the  Jelayirs  and  the  Turkomans  of  the  White  and  of 
the  Black  Sheep  were  the  most  prominent.  Tlmijr  had 
overrun  their  territory  at  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth 
century;  but  the  "noble  Tartarian's"  descendants 
proved  unable  to  retain  his  vast  dominion,  and  the 
Kurds  and  Turkomans  and  other  tribal  chiefs  soon 
re-established  their  authority  in  the  lands  bordering 
the  Euphrates.  Shah  Ismail,  the  Sefcvi,  now  appeared 
upon  the  scene,  and  after  a  long  and  obstinate 
struggle,  succeeded  in  winning  the  Persian  provinces 
from  the  descendants  of  Timur  and  in  subduing  the 
lesser  houses  of  Turkomans  and  Kurds. 

The  Persian  dominions  now  marched  with  those  of 
the  Ottoman,  and  friction  was  the  more  certain  and 
irritating  because  the  two  parties  belonged  to  two 
hostile  sects  of  Islam.  The  Turks  were  orthodox 
Snnfiis,  or  believers  in  the  conventional  doctrine  of 
pe  Koran  and  in  the  Traditions  handed  down  by  the 
Respectable  divines  of  the  orthodox  school.  The 
Persians,  on  the  other  hand,  were  Shias,  or  believers 
n  a  somewhat  mystical  variety  of  Islam,  which  per- 


SUNNIS  AND  SHI  AS.  I55 

sentoJ  many  and  important  differences  from  the 
orthodox  teaching,  and  offered  not  a  few  temptations 
to  political  ni^  well  as  religious  revolution.  Wherever 
Shii'sm  exists,  there  is  always  a  chance  of  insurrection 
against  the  powers  that  be.  The  pernicious  doctrine 
had  penetrated  the  Ottoman  dominions  in  Asia.  A 
carefully  organised  system  of  detectives,  whom  Selim 
distributed  throughout  his  Asiatic  provinces  revealed 
the  fact  that  the  number  of  the  heretical  sect  reached 
the  alarming  total  of  seventy  thousand.  Sellm 
determined  to  crush  the  heresy  before  it  came  to 
even  more  abundant  fruit.  He  secretly  massed  his 
troops  at  spots  where  the  heretics  chiefly  congre- 
gated, and  at  a  given  signal,  forty  thousand  ot 
them  were  massacred,  or  imprisoned.  Christian 
ambassadors  at  the  Porte,  not  only  expressed  no 
horror  at  the  work,  but  endorsed  the  title  of  "  The 
Just,"  by  which  Sellm  was  now  styled  in  compliment 
o  his  severe  vindication  of  orthodoxy.^  According 
to  them,  the  massacre  of  heretics  was  always  a  proof 
pf  justice. 

Having  got  rid  of  the  enemy  within  his  gates,  Sellm 
rfow  proceeded  to  attack  the  head  of  the  Shias,  the 
great  Shah  Ismail  himself  In  such  slight  engage- 
ments as  had  already  occurred,  Ismail  had  gained  a 
trifling  advantage.  He  had  also  committed  the  un- 
pardonable sin  of  harbouring  three  of  Sellm's  nephews, 
who  had  been  lucky  enough  to  escape  from  the  general 
slaughter  of  his  kindred  by  which  his  accession  had 
been  celebrated.  The  Sultan  sent  various  epistles  to 
the   Shah,  couched    in    that   bombastic   language   to 

*  Von  Hammer,  i.  710. 


156        THE   CONQUEST  OF  EGYPT. 

which  Oriental  potentates  are  addicted,  and  meanwhile 
collected  a  great  army,  with  which  he  prepared  to 
invade  the  territories  of  his  rival.  Ismail  does  not 
appear  to  have  been  adequately  impressed  either  by 
the  correspondence  or  the  preparations  for  the  attack. 
To  Sellm's  vainglorious  letters,  he  replied  that  he 
had  given  him  no  provocation,  and  desired  not  war, 
and  that  he  could  only  imagine  that  the  epistles  were 
the  result  of  an  extra  dose  of  opium  taken  by  one  of 
the  Sultan's  secretaries,  to  whom  he  therefore  presented 
a  box  of  the  favourite  drug.  As  Selim  particularly 
prided  himself  on  his  literary  skill,  and  with  reason, 
this  reply  only  increased  his  rage,  and  the  circumstance 
that  he  was  himself  rather  too  fond  of  opium  did  not 
make  the  gift  of  the  box  any  the  more  palatable.  The 
sarcasm  went  home,  and  Sellm  prepared  for  mortal 
conflict. 

It  was  no  light  task  that  he  was  undertaking. 
Ismail,  when  the  contest  became  inevitable,  had  laid 
waste  the  whole  country  that  intervened  between  his 
capital,  TebrTz,  and  the  Ottoman  headquarters  ;  and 
the  Turks  would  be  compelled  to  traverse  a  desert 
land.  So  serious  was  the  campaign  felt  to  be,  that 
when  the  Sultan  informed  his  council  of  Vezirs  what 
his  intentions  were,  they  all  kept  silence,  and  on  his 
repeating  his  purpose,  again  not  one  made  answer, 
till  the  very  sentry  who  guarded  the  door,  catching 
the  Sultan's  enthusiasm,  fell  at  his  feet  and  cried  that 
he  would  lay  down  his  life  for  him  against  the  Persians. 
That  Janissary  was  made  a  Bey  on  the  spot.  Despite 
the  warnings  of  his  ministers,  Sellm  set  forth  with  an 
army  estimated  at  over  140,000  men,  80,000  of  which 


BATTLE   OF  CHALDIRAN.  I57 

were  cavalry,  and  after  making  every  possible  prepara- 
tion for  transport  and  commissariat,  entered  upon  the 
long  and  arduous  marches  which  the  Persians  had 
rendered  doubly  difficult  by  their  previous  forays 
The  soldiers,  afflicted  with  hunger  and  thirst,  began 
to  murmur  ;  but  Ssllm  harangued  them,  and  bade  such 
as  were  cowards  to  step  out  of  the  ranks  and  go  home, 
for  he  would  only  lead  brave  men  against  the  heretics. 
Then  he  gave  the  order  to  march,  and  not  a  man 
dared  leave  the  ranks.  At  last,  after  weary  and 
painful  marching,  the  Ottomans  forced  Ismail  to  give 
battle  at  Chaldiran.  The  Persians  had  only  cavalry, 
and  no  cannon  ;  but  they  were  fresh,  while  the  Turks 
were  exhausted  with  their  long  tramp  across  the 
desert :  the  Shah  had  no  fears  for  the  upshot.  The 
Janissaries,  however,  had  not  forgotten  how  to  fight, 
and  Selim  and  his  chief  commander,  Sinan  Pasha, 
knew  how  to  marshal  the  battle.  The  Persians 
charged  gallantly,  but  Sinan  let  his  Azabs  or  light 
infantry  fall  back  between  his  artillery,  and  when  the 
Persians  rashly  followed  the  retreating  squadrons,  the 
guns  opened  upon  them  so  deadly  a  fire  that  the  day 
was  practically  won.  It  had  been  fatal  to  many  on  both 
sides,  the  Turks  lost  fourteen  Sanjak-Begs,  and  the 
Persians  an  equal  number  of  Khans  of  high  rank.  The 
Shah  himself  was  wounded  and  thrown  from  his  horse, 
and  was  only  saved  from  capture  by  the  devotion  of 
one  of  his  soldiers,  who  gallantly  personated  his  . 
master,  and  took  his  fate.  The  Sultan  entered  Tebriz 
in  triumph,  massacred  all  his  prisoners,  except  the  j 
women  and  children,  and  sent  back  to  Constantinople 
a  trophy  in  the  shape  of  a  thousand  of  the  skilful 


158        THE   CONQUEST  OF  EGYPT, 

workmen  for  which  Tebriz  had  long  been  famous, 
and  who  had  supplied  architects,  carvers,  and  workers 
in  metal  and  on  the  loom,  to  Cairo,  Damascus,  and 
Venice,  and  all  places  where  fine  workmanship  was 
prized.  The  artisans  were  estabHshed  at  Constanti- 
nople, where  they  continued  to  ply  their  trades  with 
success  in  embellishing  the  Turkish  capital. 

The  victory  of  Chaldiran  (15 14)  might  have  been 
follow.^d  by  the  conquest  of  Persia,  but  the  privations 
which  the  soldiery  had  undergone  had  rendered  them 
unmanageable,  and  SelTm  was  forced  to  content  him- 
self with  the  annexation  of  the  important  provinces 
of  Kurdistan  and  Diyarbekr,  which  are  still  part  of  the 
Turkish  Empire ;  and  then  turned  homewards,  to 
prosecute  other  schemes  of  conquest.  No  peace, 
however,  was  concluded  between  him  and  the  Shah, 
and  a  frontier  war  continued  to  be  waged  for  many 
years. 

During  the  campaign  against  Persia,  the  Turks  had 
been  kept  in  anxiety  by  the  presence  on  their  flanks 
of  the  forces  of  the  Mamluk  Sultans  of  Egypt  and 
Syria,  whose  frontiers  now  marched  with  the  territory 
of  the  Ottomans,  and  who  were  regarding  the  opera- 
tions of  Sellm  in  Diyarbekr  with  no  little  apprehen- 
sion. They  had  indeed  waged  successful  warfare  with 
Bayezld  II.,  but  they  recognized  a  very  different 
leader  in  SelTm,  and  began  to  tremble  for  their  old 
supremacy.  The  Mamluk  Sultans  had  long  borne  a 
very  high  renown  as  soldiers  and  rulers.  Mamluk 
means  "  owned,"  "  a  slave,"  and  the  origin  of  this  cele- 
brated dynasty,  or  rather  the  two  dynasties  into  which 
they  were  divided,  is  found  in  the  bodyguard  of  pur- 


THE   MAMLUK  SULTANS.  I59 

chased  white  slaves  with  whom  the  Ayyubl  Sultan 
Es-Salih,  grandnephew  of  Saladin,  surrounded  his 
state  in  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century.  Es-Salih 
found  such  protection  necessary,  not  only  against  the 
Franks  who  were  threatening  his  kingdom  in  one  of 
their  crusading  manias,  but  also  against  his  own  kins- 
men, who  were  at  once  too  numerous  and  too  powerful 
for  his  peace  of  mind.  Like  most  great  conquerors, 
Saladin  had  left  his  empire  to  be  fought  for  by  a 
numerous  progeny  and  kindred,  and  the  result  was 
that  individual  weakness  which  seeks  to  support  itself 
on  mercenary  arms,  and  is  eventually  compelled  to 
yield  to  the  very  power  which  it  has  called  in  to  its 
aid. 

The  MamlQks  of  Es-Salih  were  a  fine  body  of 
Turkish  soldiers,  recruited  by  capture  or  purchase 
from  various  parts  of  the  Mohammedan  territories, 
and  reinforced  from  the  same  regions.  They  were 
loyal  servants  while  their  master  lived  ;  their  brilliant- 
charge  under  Beybars  put  the  French  to  route  at 
Mansura,  and  brought  about  the  surrender  of  the  king, 
St  Louis  himself  In  the  troubles  that  succeeded  upon 
the  death  of  Es-Salih,  when  the  intrigues  of  the  beauti- 
ful Queen  with  the  picturesque  name  of  Shejer-ed- 
durr,  or  "  Tree  of  Pearls,"  roused  hot  blood  among 
the  grandees,  the  dynasty  of  Saladin  came  to  an  end, 
and  for  two  centuries  and  a  half  the  throne  of  Egypt 
and  Syria  was  occupied  by  a  series  of  Mamliik  chiefs. 
These  rulers,  who  often  bore  no  relationship  to  each 
other,  but  succeeded  to  power  by  force  of  arms  and 
factious  influence,  were  among  the  best  that  Egypt 
ever    had.      They   valiantly    repulsed    the    Mongols 


l6o  THE   CONQUEST  OF  EGYPT. 

and  Tartars  in  many  a  sanguinary  field  :  they  drove 
the  Christians  from  the  Holy  Land,  and  they  made 
Cairo  and  Damascus,  their  two  capitals,  homes  of 
civilization,  art,  and  literature.  These  apparently 
rude  soldiers,  "  merciless  to  their  enemies,  tyrannous 
to  their  subjects,  yet  delighted  in  the  delicate  refine- 
ments which  art  could  afford  them  in  their  home  life, 
were  lavish  in  the  endowment  of  pious  foundations, 
magnificent  in  their  mosques  and  palaces,  and  fas- 
tidious in  the  smallest  details  of  dress  and  furniture  : 
the  noblest  promoters  of  art  and  literature  and  of 
public  works  that  Egypt  has  known  since  the  time  of 
Alexander  the  Great." ' 

At  the  time  at  which  we  have  arrived,  the  Mamluks 
had  lost  little,  if  anything,  of  their  character  as  patrons 
of  art  and  learning.  The  great  Sultan  Kait  Bey  was 
but  lately  dead,  who  had  covered  Cairo  with  his  stately 
mosques  and  other  buildings,  and  whose  encourage- 
ment of  men  of  letters  was  not  less  marked.  The 
Sultan  who  surveyed  Sellm's  progress  in  Persia  was 
an  old  man,  Kansu  El-Ghilrl,  the  same  whose  two 
mosques  in  the  principal  street  of  Cairo  are  familiar 
sights  to  every  traveller  in  Egypt.  He  posted  an 
army  of  observation  on  his  Syrian  frontier,  to  watch 
the  course  of  the  Ottoman  advance.  Sellm  took  this 
as  a  menace,  and  consulted  his  VczTrs  as  to  what  was 
to  be  done.  His  secretary,  Mohammed,  urged  him  to 
make  war  upon  the  Mamluks,  and  the  Sultan  was  so 
delighted  with  this  spirited  proposal,  that  he  made  the 
secretary  Grand  Vezir  on  the  spot,  though  it  was  found 
necessary  to  administer  the  bastinado  to  the  excellent 

*  S.  Lane -Poole,  "The  Art  of  the  Saracens  in  Egypt,"  12-40. 


DEFEAT  OF   THE   MAMLUKS,  l6l 

man  before  he  consented  to  accept  so  dangerous  a 
dignity.  Sellm  was  famous  for  executing  his  Vezirs, 
and  it  was  a  common  form  of  cursing  at  the  time  to 
say,  "  Mayest  thou  be  SelTm's  Vezir,"  as  an  equivalent 
for  "Strike  you  dead  !  "  Acting  upon  the  advice  of 
the  new  VezIr,  Sellm  set  out  in  15 16  for  Syria,  and 
meeting  the  Mamluk  army  on  the  field  of  Marj  Dabik 
near  Aleppo,  administered  a  terrible  defeat,  in  which 
the  aged  Sultan  El-Ghurl  was  trampled  to  death. 

He  found  a  brave  successor  in  TQman  Bey,  but  in 
the  interval  the  Turks  had  mastered  Syria,  and  were 
advancing  to  Gaza.  Here  the  Mamluks  made  another 
stand,  but  the  generalship  of  Sinan  Pasha  was  not  to 
be  resisted  any  more  than  the  preponderance  of  his 
forces.  The  final  battle  was  fought  at  Reydaniya,  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  Cairo,  in  January,  15 17.  The 
tremendous  charge  of  the  Mamluks,  which  had  been 
their  strong  point  for  three  centuries,  almost  secured 
the  person  of  Sellm,  who  was  saved  only  by  their  mis- 
taking Sinan  Pasha  for  the  Sultan.  The  great  general 
was  speared,  many  pashas  and  nobles  were  cut  down, 
and  the  Mamluks  rode  out  of  the  mei^e  almost 
unhurt  ;  but  they  had  not  achieved  their  object,  and 
"  the  efforts  of  this  splendid  cavalry  were  as  vain 
against  the  batteries  of  SelTm's  artillery  as  were  in 
after  times  the  charges  of  their  successors  against  the 
rolling  fire  of  Napoleon's  squares."  ^ 

Twenty-five  thousand  Mamluks  lay  stark  upon  the 
field,  and  the  enemy  occupied  Cairo.  There  a  succes- 
sion of  street  fights  took  place  ;  the  houses  were 
defended  by  the  Mamluks,  and  only  step  by  step  did 

*  Sir  E.  Creasy,  143. 


1 62  THE   CONQUEST   OF  EGYPT. 

the  Turks  reach  the  citadel.  But  treason  was  at  work 
among  the  followers  of  Tuman  Bey,  and  a  traitor 
advised  Sellm  to  offer  an  amnesty  to  all  who  would 
lay  down  their  arms.  Thereupon  a  truce  was  made, 
which  Sellm  celebrated  by  beheading  the  eight 
hundred  Mamluks  who  had  trusted  to  his  good 
faith,  and  by  delivering  up  the  unfortunate  city  to 
massacre.  One  of  the  bravest  of  the  chiefs,  whose 
name  was  Kurt  Bey,  or  "  Sir  Wolf,"  was  induced  to 
come  before  the  Sultan  with  promises  of  safe  con- 
duct, and  after  a  colloquy,  in  which  the  Bey  made 
spirited  answer  alike  to  the  Sellm's  promises  and 
threats,  his  head  was  cut  off  before  the  enraged 
tyrant's  eyes.  Tuman  Bey,  after  some  further  resis- 
tance, was  captured  and  executed,  and  Egypt  became 
a  Turkish  province.  Twenty-four  Mamluk  Beys  were 
constituted  a  sort  of  commission  for  the  government 
of  the  country,  and  the  traitor  Kheyr  Bey  was  ap- 
pointed Pasha  of  Egypt. 

Sultan  Sellm  returned  to  Constantinople  in  1518,  a 
much  more  dignified  personage  than  he  had  set  out. 
By  the  conquest  of  the  Mamluk  kingdom  he  had  also 
succeeded  to  their  authority  over  the  sacred  cities  of 
Arabia,  Mekka  and  Medina,  and  in  recognition  of  this 
position,  as  well  as  of  his  undoubted  supremacy  among 
Mohammedan  monarchs,  he  received  from  the  last 
Abbaside  Khalif,  who  kept  a  shadowy  court  at  Cairo, 
the  inheritance  of  the  great  Pontiffs  of  Baghdad. 
T\\Q  faineant  Khalif  was  induced  to  make  over  to  the 
real  sovereign  the  spiritual  authority  which  he  still 
affected  to  exercise,  and  with  it  the  symbols  of  his 
office,  the   standard   and  cloak   of  the  Prophet  Mo- 


SEUM   THE   KHALIF.  163 

hammed.  Selim  now  became  not  only  the  visible 
chief  of  the  Mohammedan  State  throughout  the  wide 
dominions  subdued  to  his  sway,  but  also  the  revered 
head  of  the  religion  of  Islam,  wher^oever  it  was 
practised  in. its  orthodox  form.  The  heretical  Shias 
of  Persia  might  reject  his  claim,  but  in  India,  in  all 
parts  of  Asia  and  Africa,  where  the  traditional  Khali- 
fate  was  recognized,  the  Ottoman  Sultan  henceforth 
was  the  supreme  head  of  the  church,  the  successor 
to  the  spiritual  prestige  of  the  long  line  of  the  Khalifs. 
How  far  this  new  title  commands  the  homage  of 
the  orthodox  Moslem  world  is  a  matter  of  dispute  ; 
but  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  it  has  always  added, 
and  still  adds,  a  real  and  important  authority  to  the 
acts  and  proclamations  of  the  Ottoman  Sultan. 

The  last  year  of  his  life  was  spent  by  Sellm  in 
immense  preparations,  both  naval  and  military.  His 
object  was  concealed,  but  Rhodes  was  believed  to  be 
his  intended  victim.  He  superintended  every  detail 
of  the  arming  and  building  of  his  navy  with  unceasing 
diligence,  until  his  health  began  to  give  way,  and  he 
felt  the  approach  of  the  fatal  disorder  which  carried 
him  off  on  the  22nd  of  September,  1520.  He  looked 
sadly  upon  his  great  muniments  of  war,  and  said, 
"  For  me  there  is  no  journey,  save  that  to  the  Here- 
after." 

Selim  the  Grim  was  fifty-four  years  old  when  he  died, 
and  he  had  reigned  less  than  nine  years ;  yet  in  that  short 
space  he  had  nearly  doubled  the  extent  of  his  empire. 
Egypt,  Syria,  Arabia,  and  large  tracts  in  the  Euphrates 
valley  were  the  fruits  of  his  campaigns.  On  land  the 
Turks  had  shown  themselves  invincible.     Sehm  was 


164         THE   CONQUEST   OF  EGYPT, 

preparing  to  prove  them  equally  so  on  sea,  when  his 
career  was  arrested.  Death,  however,  did  not  check 
the  preparations  he  had  made,  nor  diminish  the  stores 
of  war  materials  he  had  collected.  Like  another 
Philip  he  had  made  ready  the  way  for  a  second 
Alexander,  and  in  his  son  Suleyman  the  Magnificent 
such  an  imperial  conqueror  was  now  found. 


X. 


SULEYMAN   THE  MAGNIFICENT. 

(15  20- 1 566.) 

The  long  reign  of  Suleyman  the  Magnificent,  who 
ascended  the  throne  at  the  age  of  twenty-six,  in  1520, 
and  ruled  in  unequalled  glory  for  nearly  half  a  century, 
is  fraught  with  significance  to  Europe,  and  teems  with 
so  many  events  of  the  first  importance  that  it  deserves 
a  volume  to  itself.  We  can  only  give  a  bare  outline 
of  the  great  wars  and  sieges  that  signalized  this  re- 
markable epoch  :  such  scenes  as  the  terrible  battle  of 
Mohacs,  the  conquest  of  Rhodes,  the  siege  of  Vienna, 
and  of  Szigeth,  and  the  repulse  at  Malta,  might  well 
engage  each  a  chapter  to  itself;  but  here  they  must 
be  depicted  in  outline,  and  the  best  will  have  been 
attained  if  the  student  is  incited  to  read  the  fuller 
records  which  have  been  written  of  them  in  larger 
works. 

Suleyman  lived  at  a  wonderful  epoch.  All  Europe, 
as  well  as  the  East,  seemed  to  have  conspired  together 
to  produce  its  greatest  rulers  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
and  to  make  its  most  astonishing  advances  in  all  fields 
of  civilization.  The  age  which  boasted  of  Charles  V., 
the  equal  of  Charlemagne  in  empire  ;  of  Francis  I.  of 


1 66  SU  LEY  MAN   THE  MAGNIFICENT. 

France;  of  our  notable  Henry  VIII.,  and  Elizabeth, 
queen  of  queens  ;  of  Pope  Leo  X.  ;  of  Vasili  Ivanovich, 
the  founder  of  the  Russian  power ;  of  Sigismund  of  Po- 
land ;  Shah  Ismail  of  Persia ;  and  of  the  Moghul  Em- 
peror Akbar,  could  yet  point  to  no  greater  sovereign 
than  Suleyman  of  Turkey.  The  century  of  Columbus, of 
Cortes,  of  Drake  and  Raleigh,  of  Spenser  and  Shake- 
speare, the  epoch  that  saw  the  revival  of  learning  in 
Italy  by  the  impulse  of  the  refugees  from  Constanti- 
nople, and  which  greeted  at  once  the  triumph  of 
Christianity  over  Islam  in  Spain  and  the  opening  of 
a  new  world  by  Spanish  enterprise,  was  hardly  more 
brilliant  in  the  West  than  in  the  East,  where  the  un- 
ceasing victories  of  Suleyman,  and  the  successes  of 
Turghud  and  Barbarossa,  formed  a  worthy  counter- 
part to  the  achievements  of  the  great  soldiers  and 
admirals  of  the  Atlantic.  Even  the  pirates  of  this 
age  were  unique  :  they  founded  dynasties. 

But  the  most  remarkable  feat  that  the  Turks 
achieved  during  this  glorious  century  was — that  they 
survived  it.  With  such  forces  as  were  arrayed  against 
them,  with  a  Europe  roused  from  its  long  sleep,  and 
ready  to  seize  arms  and  avenge  its  long  disgrace  upon 
the  infidels,  it  was  to  be  expected  that  the  fall  of  the 
Ottoman  power  must  ensue.  Instead,  we  shall  see  that 
this  power  was  not  only  able  to  meet  the  whole  array 
of  rejuvenated  Europe  on  equal  terms,  but  emerged 
from  the  conflict  stronger  and  more  triumphant  than 
ever. 

Suleyman  ascended  the  throne  surrounded  by  the 
glamour  which  belonged  to  his  youth  and  charm  of 
manner,  and  to  the  affection  which  his  gracious  rule 


•  8VLELYMAN  •AIN'KAISER.DERfTIRCREI 


Li4-OBl;ilfLoliL 


Vni^!  vwfrrxm^  Xm  lexrc  "XJtjtrc  (rrtO,  6kt»  vvrc  xjfiragt&p  rrryi 


Tr^fcWv^*" 


'  I j^tttw  Vtvicrv  fr^-Vn^  TKU^/^ 


>vre*«yfi~rfj   ^arncnbctJctj>eUx^«xii»«^,fifrwrw*»V^- 


SULEYMAN   THE   MAGNIFICENT   (iN    YOUTH). 


LORD   OF  THE  AGE,  169 

in  more  than  one  provincial  government  had  inspired  ; 
but  he  owed  something  to  the  detestation  which 
Sellm's  cruel  character  had  evoked  from  all  classes. 
The  son  differed  by  the  whole  heaven  from  his  father. 
He  was  already  renowned  for  his  justice  and  clemency, 
and  his  first  acts  were  calculated  to  strengthen  the 
good  opinion  which  had  early  been  formed  of  his 
character.  He  began  by  punishing  evildoers,  and 
especially  such  of  the  officers  and  pashas  who  were 
proved  to  have  been  guilty  of  corruption  and  par- 
tiality. His  greatest  object  was  the  same  as  that  of 
the  founder  of  the  Ottoman  Empire ;  he  desired  to 
see  even-handed  justice  administered  throughout  the 
length  and  breadth  of  his  vast  dominions. 

"  Saulen  seines  Thron's  sind  Milde,  Biedersinn,  und  Redlichkeit, 
Und  von  seinem  Wappenschilde  strahlet  die  Gerechtigkeit." 

The   people    rejoiced    to   see   once   more    a    Sultan 
they  could  love  as  well  as  fear,  and  welcomed  Suley- ' 
man  as  another  Murad. 

He  had  not  been  long  seated  on  the  throne  when 
the  occasion  arrived  for  him  to  vindicate  that  title  of 
"  Lord  of  the  Age  "  which  his  courtiers  bestowed  on 
him,  and  which  was  recorded  on  his  official  documents. 
The  Hungarians  had  insulted  and  tortured  his  envoy, 
and  vengeance  must  follow.  All  the  materials  for  a 
campaign  were  ready  ;  Selim  had  left  him  a  ripe  fruit, 
and  he  had  only  to  pluck  it.^  In  1521  he  took  the 
old  familiar  road  of  Turkish  generals,  and  marched 
upon  Hungary.  Belgrade,  which  had  repelled  Mo- 
hammed the  Conqueror,  yielded  to  his  even  greater 
^  Jurien  de  la  Graviere,  "  Doria  et  Barberousse, "  chap.  vii.  ff. 


-H 


t 


170  SULEYMAN   THE    MAGNIFICENT. 

successor.  The  church  was  turned  into  a  mosque,  the 
fortifications  strengthened,  and,  to  the  days  of  Prince 
Eugene,  "der  edle  Ritter,"  the  key  of  the  Danube 
formed  a  jewel  in  the  Ottoman  crown.  The  effect  of 
the  victory  was  immediate  :  Venice,  in  consternation, 
humbled  herself  as  the  Sultan's  vassal,  and  paid  him 
twofold  tribute  for  Zante  and  Cyprus.  It  was  only 
the  first  rumble  of  the  storm,  however.  In  the  follow- 
ing year,  1522,  an  even  more  renowned  place  f&ll  before 
Suleyman's  assault.  Rhodes,  where  Mohammed  II. 
had  received  a  second  repulse,  was  now  besieged  by 
Suleyman  with  all  the  strength  of  his  empire.  A  hun- 
dred thousand  troops  by  land,  and  ten  thousand  by  sek, 
encompassed  the  devoted  island  ;  and  all  the  efforts 
of  the  heroic  Grand  Master,  Villiers  de  L'Isle  Adam, 
could  not  avail  to  prevent  the  fall  of  the  stronghold 
of  the  Knights  of  St.  John.  For  close  upon  five 
inontlTslHey  mH" mme~with  countermine,  and  repelled 
four  tremendous  assaults  with  heavy  loss  ;  but  no 
garrison,  without  any  prospect  of  a  relieving  force, 
could  withstand  for  ever  the  skilful  engineering  of  the 
Turks,  who  were  the  masters  of  Europe  in  the  art  of 
making  regular  approaches  against  a  fortified  position, 
and  possessed  the  best  artillery  in  the  world.  At  last, 
seeing  the  hopelessness  of  the  contest,Jtlie^_^Grand 
Maste'r'and  his  brave  Knights  accepted  the  honourable 
terms  which  Suleyman  had  offered  them,  but  which 
they  had  before  refused.  The  Sultan  was  no  breaker 
of  his  word.  They  were  allowed  twelve  days  to  leave 
the  island  with  their  property  and  arms  ;  the  people 
of  Rhodes  were  to  have  full  privilege  of  the  exercise 
of  their  religion,  and  to  be  free  from  tribute  for  five 


SIEGE   OF    RHODES. 


CONQUEST   OF  RHODES.  I73 

years.  So  deeply  were  the  Turks  impressed  by  the 
v&.lour  of  the  Knights,  that  even  their  armorial  es- 
cutcheons, which  stood  over  their  houses,  were  left 
undisturbed,  and  may  be  seen  there  to  this  day. 

The  first  year's  campaign  had  ended  in  the  capture  V 
of  Belgrade,  the  second  had  brought  the  surrender  of  N 
Rhodes  ;  the  one  had  opened  Hungary,  the  other  had 
delivered  up  the  Levantine  waters  to  the  Ottoman 
fleets.  Now  for  two  years  the  Sultan  busied  himself 
in  the  internal  administration  of  his  empire  and  in 
putting  down  a  revolt  in  Egypt.  He  soon  found  out  his 
mistake  in  intermitting  the  annual  expeditions  which 
had  kept  his  large  standing  army  in  good  temper  \ 
The  Janissaries  began  to  mutiny,  and  though  the 
Sultan  at  first  tried  the  effect  of  boldness,  and  with 
his  own  hands  slew  two  of  the  leaders  of  the  insurrec- 
tion, he  found  himself  forced  at  last  to  pacify  them  by 
a  large  bribe,  like  Sultans  before  and  since,  to  the  great 
damage  of  the  imperial  authority  and  impoverishment 
of  the  treasury.  It  became  necessary  to  gratify  the 
soldiers'  love  of  war ~^and" 'booty,  and  Suleyman 
resolved  on  a  campaign  in  Hungary,  being  the  more 
encouraged  to  it  by  the  advice  of  the  ambassador  sent 
to  the  Porte  by  Francis  I,  of  France,  who  was  anxious 
to  divert  his  great  rival  Charles  V.  from  further 
designs  in  the  west. 

The  decision  was  due,  however,  as  much  to  another 
voice  as  to  the  machinations  of  the  French  king. 
Suleyman,  great  as  he  was,  shared  his  greatness  with/ 
a  second  mind,  to.  which  his  reign  owed  much  of  its 
brilliance.  The  Grand  VezTr  Ibrahim  was  the 
counterpart  of  the  Grand  Monarch  Suleyman.      He 


174  SULEYMAN   THE   MAGNIFICENT. 

was  the  son  of  a  sailor  at  Parga,  and  had  been 
captured  by  corsairs,  by  whom  he  was  sold  to  be 
the  slave  of  a  widow  at  Magnesia.  Here  he  passed 
into  the  hands  of  the  young  prince  Suleyman,  then 
governor  of  Magnesia,  and  soon  his  extraordinary 
talents  and  address  brought  him  promotion.  The 
Turks  have  a  proverb :  "  When  God  gives  office, 
he  gives  also  the  ability  to  fill  it :  "  and  it  was  so 
with  the  young  man  who,  from  being  Grand  P'al- 
coner  on  the  accession  of  Suleyman,  rose  to  be  first 
-minister  and  almost  co-Sultan  in  1523.  He  was-  the 
object  of  the  Sultan's  tender  regard :  an  emperor  knows 
better  than  most  men  how  solitary  is  life  without 
friendship  and  love,  and  Suleyman  loved  this  man 
more  than  a  brother.  Ibrahim  was  not  only  a 
friend,  he  was  an  entertaining  and  instructive  com- 
panion. He  read  Persian,  Greek,  and  Italian  ;  he 
knew  how  to  open  unknown  worlds  to  the  Sultan's 
mind,  and  Suleyman  drank  in  his  VezTr's  wisdom  with 
assiduity.  They  lived  together :  their  meals  were 
shared  in  common  ;  even  their  beds  were  in  the  same 
room.  The  Sultan  gave  his  sister  in  marriage  to  the 
sailor's  son,  and  Ibrahim  was  at  the  summit  of  power.. 
"La  douce  et  feconde  union!  L'Empire  en  ressent 
d'heure  en  heure  le  bienfait.  Elle  dure  depuis  six 
ans  :  puisse-t-clle,  pour  le  salut  de  la  Chretiente,  ne 
pas  etre  eternelle!"^  Ibrahim  deserved  his  success. 
He  was  great  in  war  and  in  peace.  He  alone  knew 
how  to  appease  the  Janissaries  ;  and  he  counselled 
and  led  the  expedition  against  Vienna. 

Accordingly  in  1526  the  Ottoman  army,  mustering 

*  Jurien  de  la  Graviere,  **  Doria  et  Barbcroussc,"  114. 


COUNCIL   HALL,    RHODES. 


'00MMWW^^:^;:I^ 


Mi"} 


BATTLE   OF  MOHACS.  lyg 

at  least  icx),ooo  men  and  three  hundred  guns,  marched 
north  headed  by  the  Sultan  in  person.  Louis  II.  of 
Hungary  met  him  on  August  29th  on  the  fatal  field  of 
Mohacs  with  a  far  inferior  force,  and  the  result  was 
disastrous  to  the  Christians.  The  king,  and  many  of 
his  nobles  and  bishops,  and  over  20,000  Hungarians 
fell  on  the  fatal  spot,  where  the  encounter  is  known  as 
"  The  Destruction  of  Mohdcs."  ^  Buda  and  Pesth 
were  occupied,  the  whole  country  roundabout  ravaged, 
and  100,000  captives  were  driven  back  to  be  sold  as 
slaves.  The  spoils  of  the  palace  of  Matthias  Corvinus 
and  its  famous  library  were  added  to  those  of  the 
Palaeologi  in  the  Seraglio  at  the  Golden  Horn.  For 
over  a  century  Hungary  had  been  the  rampart  of 
Europe  against  the  Turks.  |  The  campaign  of  Mohacs 
made  Hungary  an  Ottoman  provmce'foF  a  hundred 
and  forty  yearsi 

The  ruling  influence  which  the  Sultan  exercised  over 
the  appointment  of  his  deputy,  the  nominal  king  of 
Hungary  took  him  northward  again  in  1529  to  place 
his  own  candidate  upon  the  throne — Zapolya,  formerly 
Voyvode  of  Transylvania,  who  had  withheld  his 
help  from  Hungary  at  the  battle  of  Mohacs.  The 
Archduke  Ferdinand  of  Austria,  brother  of  Charles  V., 
however,  claimed  the  throne,  and  Suleyman  had  to 
interfere  in  the  civil  war.  Ferdinand  in  vain  sent 
ambassadors  to  arrange  a  truce,  and  make  terms  with 
the  indignant  Sultan.  The  messengers  were  dismissed, 
and  Ferdinand  was  told  that  the  Sultan  was  coming, 
and  would  expect  to  meet  him  at  Mohacs  or  at  Pesth, 
or  should  he  fail  to  appear,  he  would  breakfast  with 

^  See  "  The  Story  of  Hungary,"  pp.  286-336. 


X 


1 8*0  SU  LEY  MAN   THE  MAGNIFICENT, 

him  at  Vienna  itself.  And  he  came  with  a  vengeance, 
bringing  a  quarter  of  a  million  of  men  at  his  heels. 
In  September,  1529,  the  army  retook  Ofen  (Buda) 
from  Ferdinand's  garrison,  not  without  treason  from 
within.  Zapolya  was  restored,  and  the  Sultan  pro- 
ceeded to  execute  his  threat  of  advancing  upon  Vienna. 
It  is  worth  recording  that  Suleyman  released  the 
commander  of  Buda  on  parole  that  he  would  not- fight 
against  the  Turks  during  the  campaign,  and  this 
generous  act  was  done  in  spite  of  the  murmurs  of  the 
Janissaries,  who  were  enraged  at  not  being  allowed  to 
pluiriderThe  Hungarian  capital,  and  even  against  the 
urgent  representations  of  the  Hungarians  of  Zapolya's 
party,  who  were  now  ranged  with  the  Sultan  ready  to 
attack  their  countrymen  and  besiege  Vienna.  For 
a  century  and  a  half  the  capital  of  Hungary  remaiiTed 
a  Turkish  outpost. 

On  September  21st  Suleyman  crossed  the  Raab  at 
Altenburg,  and  let  loose  his  terrible  troops  of  irregular 
cavalry  or  "  Sackmen,"  as  they  are  called  in  contem- 
porary German  records,  upon  the  stricken  land.  Far 
and  wide  these  fierce  riders  forayed,  under  their  savage 
leader  Mikhal  Oglu,  who  was  a  descendant  of  Scant- 
Beard  Mikhal,  a  close  ally  of  the  first  Othman. 
They  carried  devastation  and  misery  among  the 
villages,  destroying  and  burning  everything,  and  bear- 
ing off  into  captivity  men,  v^omen,  and  children.  Place 
after  place  surrendered,  in  terrpr  of  the  Ottoman 
army  and  the  scourge  of  the  Sickmcn.  Pesth  fell 
without  a  blow.  The  Archbishop  of  Gran  surrendered 
his  city,  and  sought  refuge  in  the  Sultan's  camp.  Co- 
morn  was  abandoned  :  Raab  was  burned  :  Altenburg 


SOLIMANVS  -IMPEFATOF. 
•TVRCHAR-VM 


SULEYMAN    ON    THE   WAR-PATH. 


INVASION  OF  HUNGARY,  183 

betrayed.  Briick,  however,  made  a  stout  defence,  and 
the  Sultan,  always  pleased  with  a  show  of  courage, 
accorded  the  garrison  the  lenient  condition  that  they 
should  only  do  him  homage  after  the  fall  of  Viennal 

Meanwhile  Austria  was  striving  to  collect  some 
adequate  force  wherewith  to  meet  the  overwhelming 
hosts  of  the  Turks.  Every  tenth  man  was  called  out 
for  service,  and  the  neighbouring  states  sent  contribu- 
tions to  the  army,  but  it  was  still  miserably  unequal 
to  the  demand  which  was  to  be  made  upon  its  valour. 
Ferdinand  implored  aid  of  the  empire,  and  the  Diet 
of  Spires,  moved  by  the  rumour  that  Suleyman  had 
sworn  not  to  stop  short  of  the  Rhine,  voted  a  puny 
force  of  12,000  foot  and  4,000  horse.  Even  this  was 
not  granted  without  interminable  discussion,  and  the 
choice  of  a  commander  still  remained  a  hotly  debated 
question,  when  the  Turks  were  already  over  the  Save 
and  had  won  their  way  into  Pesth.  "There  were  not 
wanting  men  hard  of  belief,  pedants  of  the  true  German 
stamp,  who  maintained  that  mere  apprehension  had 
exaggerated  the  danger  ;  and  finally  it  was  agreed  at 
Ratisbon,  to  which  city  the  assembly  had  transferred 
itself,  to  send  a  deputation  of  two  persons  to  Hungary 
to  investigate  the  state  of  affairs  on  the  spot.  They 
went,  and  having  the  good  fortune  to  escape  the  hands 
of  the  Turks,  returned  with  evidence  sufficient  to 
satisfy  the  doubts  of  their  sagacious  employers."  ^ 

It  soon  became  evident  that  Austria  could  not 
muster  an  army  of  any  service,  in  time  to  check  the 
Turkish  advance  ;  and  the  efforts  of  the  Christians 
were  now  devoted  to  the  defence  of  the  capital.     "  In 

'  Schimmer,  "Two  Siegesof  Vienna  by  the  Turks"  (Eng.  trans.),  15. 


184  SULBYMAN   THE  MAGNIFICENT. 

Vienna,  the  necessary  preparations  had  been   made 
with  almost  superhuman  exertion,  but  in  such  haste 
and  with  so  little  material,  that  they  could  only  be  con- 
sidered as  very  inadequate  to  the  emergency.     The 
city  itself  occupied  the  same  ground  as  at  present,  the 
defences  were  old  and  in  great  part  ruinous,  the  walls 
scarcely  six  feet  thick  and  the  outer  palisade  so  frail 
and  insufficient  that  the  name  Stadtzaun,or  city  hedge, 
which  it  bears  in  the  municipal  records  of  the  time, 
was  literally  as  well  as  figuratively  appropriate.     The 
citadel  was  merely  the  old  building  which  now  exists 
under  the  name  of  Schweitzer  Hof     All  the  houses 
which  lay  too  near  the  wall  were  levelled  to  the  ground ; 
where  the  wall  was  specially  weak  or  out  of  repair 
a  new  entrenched   line  of  earthen  defence   was  con- 
structed and  well  palisaded  ;    within  the   city  itself, 
from  the  Stuben  to  the  Karnthner  or  Carinthian  gate, 
an  entirely  new  wall  twenty  feet  high  was  constructed 
with  a  ditch  interior  to  the  old.      The  bank  of  the 
Danube  was  also  entrenched  and  palisaded,  and  from 
the   drawbridge  to   the   Salz   gate    protected  with  a 
rampart  capable  of  resisting  artillery.     As  a  precau- 
tion against  fire,  the  shingles  with  which  the  houses 
were    generally    roofed    were    throughout    the    city 
removed.     The  pavement    of  the  streets  was   taken 
up   to  deaden   the   effect  of  the  enemy's   shot,   and 
watchposts  established  to  guard    against    conflagra- 
tion.    Parties  were  detached  to  scour  the  neighbour- 
ing country  in  search  of  provisions,  and  to  bring  in 
cattle  and  forage.       Finally,  to  provide  against   the 
possibility  of  a  protracted   siege,  useless  consumers, 
women,  children,  old  men,  and  ecclesiastics,  were  as 


SIEGE   OF   VIENNA.  1 87 

far  as  possible  forced  to  withdraw  from  the  city," ' 
too  often  only  to  fall  into  the  ruthless  hands  of  the 
Sackmen. 

Behind  these  hastily  improvised  defences,  the  veteran 
Count  of  Salm,  who  had  seen  half  a  century  of 
service  in  the  field,  posted  his  garrison  of  20,000 
foot,  2,000  horse,  and  1,000  volunteer  burghers,  and 
manned  the  seventy  guns  which  formed  the  artillery 
of  the  city.  At  the  last  moment,  when  the  Turks, 
having  taken  Briick  and  Altenburg,  were  almost  upon 
the  capital,  the  order  was  given  to  destroy  the  suburbs, 
lest  they  should  afford  cover  to  the  besiegers.  The 
unfortunate  inhabitants  deprived  of  their  homes  thus 
late,  had  no  time  to  escape  from  the  harries  of  the 
Sackmen,  who  now  spread  over  the  whole  country 
40,000  strong,  burning  and  slaying  wherever  they 
went,  murdering  unborn  children,  and  brutally  de- 
stroying helpless  girls,  whose  insulted  bodies  lay 
unheeded  upon  the  roads  :  "  God  rest  their  souls,  and 
grant  vengeance  upon  the  bloodhounds  who  did  this 
wrong ! "  as  a  writer  of  the  day  indignantly  ex-  ■ 
claims.  It  was  stated  at  the  time  that  scarcely  1  i 
third  of  the  inhabitants  of  Upper  Austria  survived 
this  calamitous  invasion. 

On  the  27th  of  September,  the  Sultan  and  his 
Grand  Vezir  Ibrahim  brought  the  main  army  before 
the  city.  "The  country  within  sight  of  the  walls 
as  far  as  Schwechat  and  Trautmannsdorf  was  co- 
vered with  tents,  the  number  of  which  was  cal- 
culated at  30,000,  nor  could  the  sharpest  vision  from 
St     Stephen's     tower    overlook     the    limit    of    the 

*  "Tv\o  Sieges  of  Vienna,"  16-17. 


l88  SU  LEY  MAN   THE   MAGNIFICENT. 

circle  so  occupied.  The  flower  of  the  Turkish  force, 
the  Janissaries,  took  possession  of  the  ruins  of  the 
suburbs,  which  afforded  them  an  excellent  cover 
from  the  fire  of  the  besieged.  They  also  cut  loop- 
holes in  the  walls  still  standing  from  which  they 
directed  a  fire  of  small  ordnance  and  musketry  on 
the  walls  of  the  city.  The  tent  of  Suleyman  rose  in 
superior  splendour  over  all  others  at  Simmering. 
Hangings  of  the  richest  tissue  separated  its  numerous 
compartments  from  each  other.  Costly  carpets  and 
cushions  and  divans  studded  with  jewels  formed  the 
furniture.  Its  numerous  pinnacles  were  terminated 
by  knobs  of  massive  gold.  Five  hundred  archers  of 
the  royal  guard  kept  watch  there  night  and  day. 
Around  it  rose  in  great  though  inferior  splendour 
the  tents  of  ministers  and  favourites  ;  and  12,000 
Janissaries,  the  terror  of  their  enemies,  and  not  un- 
frequently  of  their  masters,  were  encamped  in  a  circle 
round  this  central  sanctuary."  ^ 

While  this  immense  army  of  a  quarter  of  a  million, of 
which,  however,  probably  not  more  than  a  third  was 
fully  armed,  invested  the  city,  the  circuit  was  completed 
by  means  of  the  four  hundred  vessels,  which  con- 
stituted the  marine  part  of  the  siege,  on  the  Lobau. 
The  work  of  approaching  the  walls  now  began.  The 
Turks  had  been  compelled  by  heavy  rains  to  leave 
their  siege  guns  behind  them,  and  tlic}-  had  only 
field  pieces  and  musketry.  Accordingly  mines  were 
the  chief  weapon  in  which  they  trusted.  For  a 
fortnight  they  exerted  all  their  noted  skill  in  burrow- 
ing under  the  walls  and  towers  and   laying  mines  in 

'  '*  Two  Sieges  of  Vienna,"  26. 


SIEGE   OF   VIENNA,  1 89 

the  most  propitious  positions  ;  but  all  to  no  purpose. 
The  besieged  kept  a  watchful  eye  upon  every  approach, 
and  no  sooner  was  a  mine  carefully  laid,  than  it  was 
destroyed  by  a  counter  mine,  or  its  powder  was  ex- 
tracted by  an  exploring  party  working  from  the 
cellars  within  the  city.  The  Viennese  were  in  good 
spirits  and  even  ventured  to  indulge  in  jokes  at  the 
Sultan's  expense.  Suleyman  had  vowed  to  take  his 
breakfast  in  Vienna  on  the  29th  of  September,  and  when 
the  morning  arrived,  and  the  city  was  unsubdued,  the 
inhabitants  sent  out  prisoners  to  his  tent,  to  tell  him 
that  his  breakfast  was  getting  cold,  and  they  were 
afraid  they  had  no  better  cheer  to  offer  him  but  the 
produce  of  the  guns  on  the  battlements.  Such 
pleasantries  relieved  the  tedium  of  mines  and  counter- 
mines, varied  by  the  occasional  sallies  which  the 
besieged  made  from  time  to  time  without  much  result. 
On  October  9th  the  Turks  effected  a  broad  breach 
by  the  side  of  the  Karnthner  gate,  but  three  successive 
storming  parties  were  repulsed,  and  the  breach  was 
repaired.  On  the  1 1  th  another  and  greater  breach 
was  made,  and  for  three  hours  the  assailants  fought 
hand  to  hand  with  the  defenders,  till  at  midday  they 
were  forced  to  abandon  the  assault.  All  the  next 
day  the  walls  were  the  scene  of  protracted  conflicts 
between  the  storming  parties  and  the  besieged,  who 
still  manfully  resisted  every  effort  of  the  Turks  to 
gain  a  footing  inside  the  defences.  The  Sultan  was 
enraged,  and  his  troops  afflicted  by  the  severe  weather 
and  bad  food,  and  weary  of  daily  defeat,  became 
more  and  more  discouraged,  so  that  they  had  to  be 
driven  to   the  assault   by  their  officers'  swords  and 


igO  SULEYMAN   THE   MAGNIFICENT. 

whips.  At  last,  on  the  14th,  a  final  attempt  was 
made.  Every  preparation  had  been  made  by  both 
sides,  and  at  nine  o'clock  the  Janissaries  and  the 
flower  of  the  Ottoman  army  came  on  to  the  attack. 
The  soldiers  however  were  dispirited,  and  when  the 
Vezir  and  his  officers  urged  them  on  with  stick  and 
sabre,  they  cried  that  they  would  rather  die  by  the 
hands  of  their  own  officers  than  face  the  long  muskets 
of  the  Spaniards  and  the  German  spits,  as  they  called 
the  Lanzknechts'  long  swords.  Still  when  a  breach 
had  been  made  twenty-four  fathoms  wide  the  Turks 
were  forced  to  the  assault.  The  efforts  of  such  un- 
willing men  were  of  no  avail  against  the  resolute 
defence  of  the  Spaniards  and  Germans  of  the  garrison. 
As  an  instance  of  the  courage  of  the  besieged  a  story 
is  told  of  a  Portuguese  and  a  German,  of  whom  one 
had  lost  his  right  arm  and  the  other  his  left  in  repell- 
ing the  assault :  the  two  then  stood  together  side  close 
to  side,  and  thus  made  up  a  whole  man  between  them. 
When  even  the  halves  of  soldiers  can  fight,  such 
exhausted  energies  as  were  left  to  the  Turks  might 
well  succumb.  The  last  assault  had  f^iiled,  and 
Suleyman  ordered  a  retreat.  The  Janissaries  set  fire 
to  their  camp,  and  flung  into  the  flames — it  is  to  be 
hoped  without  the  Sultan's  knowledge — the  old 
people  and  children  who  were  prisoners,  and  cut  to 
pieces  the  remainder.  After  this  disgusting  and  use- 
less revenge,  they  set  out  on  their  retreat,  to  the 
music  of  the  salvo  of  artillery  which  the  delighted 
garrison  now  discharged  from  the  ramparts  of  Vienna, 
and  the  ringing  of  all  the  bells  which  during  the  siege 
had  been  silenced.     Had  they  been  nearer  they  would 


RETREAT  OF   THE    rC//?A:S.^*i«— i*"^  I9I 

have  heard  the  solemn  strains  of  the  Te  Deum  which 
was  being  celebrated  in  St.  Stephen's,  where  the 
defenders  were  rendering  their  glad  thanks  for  the 
victory.  """^ — 

Suleyman  pursued  his  way,  harassed  by  skirmishing 
bodies  of  Austrian  cavalry,  till  he  reached  Pesth,  and 
thence  departed  for  Constantinople,  where  he  made  a 
triumphant  entry,  and  proclaimed  that  he  had  par- 
doned the  infidel,  and  that,  as  the  city  of  Vienna  was  so 
far  from  his  frontiers,  he  had  not  deemed  it  necessary 
to  "  clear  out  the  fortress,  or  purify,  improve,  and  put 
it  into  repair."  Such  was  the  view  sedulously  in- 
culcated into  the  minds  of  his  subjects,  when  the 
disastrous  siege  of  Vienna  was  spoken  of  Of  the 
20,000  or  30,000  men  who  fell  in  the  siege,  Suleyman 
would  probably  not  be  expected  to  say  much. 

The  14th  of  October  which  saw  the  abandonment  of 
the  siege  of  Vienna,  and  the  limit  set  to  the  rush  of 
Turkish  advance,  is  a  famous  day  in  German  history : 
it  is  the  anniversary  of  the  peace  of  Westphalia  and 
of  Vienna,  the  battles  of  Hochkirchen,  Jena,  and  Leip- 
zig, and  of  the  capture  of  Ulm. 

Thre3  years  later  Suleyman  returned  to  the  attack, 
followed  by  an  even  larger  army  ;  but  the  Emperor 
Charles  V.  had  now  taken  up  the  gauntlet,  and  his 
forces  were  too  considerable  for  a  rash  engagement. 
Suleyman  did  not  care  to  risk  his  long  tide  of  success, 
already  once  broken  by  his  failure  at  Vienn*a,~upon  so 
hazardous  a  chance  as  an  open  battle  with  Charles ; 
and  after  again  ravaging  the  country  with  the  lawless 
bands  of  Akinji,made  peace  at  Constantinople  in  1533; 
Hungary   was   divided    between   the  two  claimants, 


192  SV  LEY  MAN   THE   MAGNIFICENT. 

Ferdinand  and  Zapolya,  and  the  Sultan  retained  his 
advantages.  The  peace  was,  however,  very  transitory, 
for  in  1 541  the  Sultan  led  his  ninth  campaign,  and  after 
gaining  many  advantages  over  the  Austrians  com- 
pelled Charles  V.  and  Ferdinand  to  sue  for  peace,  so  in 
1547  a  truce  was  signed  for  five  years.  The  Archduke 
Ferdinand  was  to  pay  a  tribute  of  30,000  ducats  a 
year  to  his  master  the  Sultan,  and  was  proud  to  be 
addressed  as  the  brother  of  his  master's  Vezir.  Sulcy- 
man  retained  all  Hungary  and  Transylvania,  and 
had  certainly  come  out  of  the  long  struggle  with  the 
honours  of  war.  Many  of  the  Hungarian  cities,  how- 
ever, stoutly  resisted  his  domination,  and  their 
defenders  performed  prodigies  of  valour.  When  the 
five  years  were  over,  hostilities  were  punctually  re- 
sumed, and  continued  unceasingly  and  unproductive!/ 
until  Suleyman's  death  in  1566. 

He  died  in  his  tent  6th  September,  while  superin- 
tending, the  siege  of  Szigetvar,  which  was  heroically 
defended  by  Nicholas  Zrinyi.  The  great  Sultan  expired 
tranquilly  of  mere  old  age,  after  a  reign  of  forty-six 
years,filled  with  a  militaryglory  which  no  similar  period 
could  show.  As  he  lay  in  his  tent,  while  his  death  was 
studiously  concealed  from  his  troops,  Zrinyi  made  his 
final  sally.  He  had  vowed  never  to  surrender,  and  had 
used  the  Sultan's  summons  as  wadding  for  his  musket. 
Now  seeing  that  further  defence  was  hopeless,  he  led 
the  last  charge.  The  Turks  were  pressing  forward  along 
a  narrow  bridge  wh ichTeH  t6"tHe  castle  when  the  gates 
were  flung  open,  a  mortar  filled  with  broken  iron_was 
fired  into  their  midst,  and  through  the  smoke  ancicar- 
nage"  Zrinyried  his  men  to  their  death.     Like  the 


SULTAN   SULEYMAN. 


i 


ZRINYI'S   HEROISM.  I95 

famous  Light  Brigade,  the  number  of  these  devoted 
horsemen  was  six  hundred  ;  their  leader  tied  the  keys 
of  the  castle  to  his  belt,  and  the  banner  of  the  empire 
was  borne  above  his  head.  Zrinyi  fell  pierced  by  two 
musket  shots  and  an  arrow,  and  the  Turks  entered  the 
castle  of  Szigctvar,  only  to  find  that  a  slow  match 
had  been  applied  to  a  mine  containing  3,000  lbs.  of 
gunpowder,  which  speedily  sent  as  many  Turks  to 
paradise.  The  castle  still  remains  a  ruin  :  a  monument 
of  the  death  of  a  Leonidas  and  of  an  Alexander. 

Suleyman  is  perhaps  the  greatest  figure  in  Turkish! 
history.  His  personal  qualities  were  superb  :  his  wis-j 
dom,  justice,  generosity,  kindness,  and  courtesy  were, 
a  proverb,  and  his  intellectual  gifts  were  the  counter-' 
part  of  his  fine  moral  nature.  His  reign  had  not 
passed  without  its  blots  ;  he  had  done  more  than  one 
cruel  deed  :  he  had  sacrificed  his  dear  friend  and 
peerless  minister  Ibrahim  in  a  fit  of  jealousy  in  1536, 
and  never  ceased  to  find  cause  to  regret  his  fault ;  and 
spurred  on  by  a  clever  and  unscrupulous  Russian  wife, 
who  rejoiced  in  the  name  of  Khurrem  or  Joyous,  and 
whom  all  the  nations  of  Europe  have  adopted 
under  the  name  of  Roxelana,  he  had  killed  the 
most  hopeful  of  his  sons,  his  first-born,  Mustafa, 
who  showed  such  promise  of  rivalling  his  father  that 
Khurrem  deemed  the  chances  of  her  own  son  Sellm 
unsafe  while  the  splendid  young  prince  survived ;  and 
other  executions  had  stained  his  career.  But  these 
were  the  rare  exceptions.  The  rule  was  justice,  pru- 
dence, and  magnanimity,  and  Suleyman  deserves  all 
the  praises  that  have  been  lavished  upon  him  by  his-' 
torians  of  every  nationality.     He  left  his  century  the 


196  SV  LEY  MAN   THE   MAGNIFICENT, 

better  for  his  generous  example.  He  left  the  Turkish 
arms  respected  by  land  and  sea.  While  the  horsetails 
had  waved  before  Vienna,  the  Sultan's  galleys  had 
swept  the  seas  to  the  coasts  of  Spain.  It  was  the  age 
of  great  admirals,  and  Charles  V/s  splendid  Doria 
found  a  rival  in  Kheyr-ed-din  Barbarossa,  the  corsair 
of  Tunis,  and  victor  over  Pope,  Emperor,  and  Doge 
at  the  battle  of  Prevesa  (1538) ; — in  Dragut  (Torghud), 
who  finished  his  daring  career  at  the  fatal  siege  of 
Malta — when,  despite  the  corsair's  valour,  the  Knights 
wrought  golden  deeds  of  heroism,  and  dealt  as  deadly 
a  blow  at  Turkish  prestige  as  even  the  Count  of  Salm 
had  struck  from  the  walls  of  Vienna ; — and  in  Piali 
the  conqueror  of  Oran  and  worster  of  Doria  himself 
Most  of  the  Turkish  naval  successes  were  the  work  of 
semi-independent  adventurers,  pirates,  or  buccaneers, 
whose  venturesome  exploits  belong  rather  to  the 
"  Story  of  the  Corsairs  "  than  to  the  legitimate  history 
of  Turkey. 

"  Sultan  Suleyman  left  to  his  successors  an  empire 
to  the  extent  of  which  few  permanent  additions  were 
ever  made,  except  the  islands  of  Cyprus  and  Candia, 
and  which  under  no  subsequent  Sultan  maintained 
or  recovered  the  wealth,  power,  and  prosperity  which 
it  enjoyed  under  the  great  lawgiver  of  the  house  of 
Othman.  The  Turkish  dominions  in  his  time  com- 
prised all  the  most  celebrated  cities  of  Biblical  and 
classical  history,  except  Rome,  Syracuse,  and  Perse- 
polis.  The  sites  of  Carthage,  Memphis,  Tyre, 
Nineveh,  Babylon,  and  Palmyra  were  Ottoman 
ground ;  and  the  cities  of  Alexandria,  Jerusalem, 
Smyrna,  Damascus,  Nice,  Prusa,  Athens,  Philippi,  and 


ROXELANA. 


SULEYMAN'S  EMPIRE.  igg 

Adrianople,  besides  many  of  later  but  scarce  inferior 
celebrity,  such  as  Algiers,  Cairo,  Mekka,  Medina, 
Basra,  Baghdad,  and  Belgrade,  obeyed  the  Sultan  of 
Constantinople.  The  Nile,  the  Jordan,  the  Orontes, 
the  Euphrates,  the  Tigris,  the  Tanais,  the  Borysthenes 
the  Danube,  the  Hebrus,  and  the  Ilyssus,  rolled  their 
waters  'within  the  shadow  of  the  Horsetails.'  The 
eastern  recess  of  the  Mediterranean,  the  Propontis, 
the  Palus  Maeotis,  the  Euxine,  and  the  Red  Sea, 
were  Turkish  lakes.  The  Ottoman  crescent  touched 
the  Atlas  and  the  Caucasus  ;  it  was  supreme  over 
Athos,  Sinai,  Ararat,  Mount  Carmel,  Mount  Taurus, 
Ida,  Olympus,  Pelion,  Haemus,  the  Carpathian  and 
the  Acroceraunian  heights.  An  empire  of  more  than 
forty  thousand  square  miles,  embracing  many  of  the 
richest  and  most  beautiful  regions  of  the  world,  had 
been  acquired  by  the  descendants  of  Ertoghrul,  in 
three  centuries  from  the  time  when  their  forefather 
wandered  a  homeless  adventurer  at  the  head  of  less 
thg^  five  hundred  fighting  men."  ^ 

»  Sir  E.  Creasy,  197  (ed.  1877). 


200  NOTE    TO  MAP, 


NOTE. 

The  accompanying  plan  shows  in  rough  outline  the  growth  and 
the  decrease  of  the  Ottoman  Empire.  Vertically  it  is  measured  by 
years,  an  inch  to  a  century.  Horizontally  it  is  divided  into  three  chief 
sections,  representing  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa,  within  which  the  prin- 
cipal provinces  are  indicated  at  the  time  when  they  became  part  of  the 
Turkish  Empire,  and  again  when  they  ceased  to  be  Ottoman.  The 
shaded  portion  represents  the  dominion  of  the  Turks,  whether  under 
their  immediate  control  or  under  the  rule  of  a  vassal  king  (as  Serbia  in 
the  earlier  period).  Thus  we  see  the  small  beginning  of  the  Ottoman 
power  in  Asia ;  its  spread  over  Bithynia  in  the  first  half  of  the  four- 
teenth century ;  its  progress  in  Europe  during  the  second  half,  through 
Rumelia  and  Bulgaria  to  Serbia  and  Wallachia  ;  its  sudden  extension  in 
Anatolia  at  the  close  of  the  century,  and  its  equally  sudden  repression 
i)y  Timur  ;  and  then  the  steady  enlargement  indicated  by  such  names  as 
Greece,  Constantinople,  Albania,  Moldavia,  Hungary,  &.<:.,  on  the 
European  side,  and  Karamar^'  Armenia,  Arabia,  Syria,  Egypt,  Algiers, 
Tripoli,  and  Tunis  on  the  Asiatic  and  African  side,  until,  in  the  last 
quarter  of  the  sixteenth  century,  the  greatest  extent  is  attained.  Then, 
in  the  second  part  of  the  plan,  we  see  Algiers  becoming  semi-indepen- 
dent l)efore  the  seventeenth  century  was  half  gone  ;  Tunis  following, 
and  Hungary  lost  by  1700  ;  Russia  despoiling  the  Porte  of  the  Crimea  ; 
Mohammed  Ali  virtually  independent  in  Egypt  ;  various  vStates  rising 
in  the  Balkan  Peninsula, — Greece,  Bosnia,  Serbia,  Rumania  ;  France 
in  Algiers  and  Tunis,  and  Russia  encroaching  in  Asia  Minor,  after  the 
last  Russo-Turkish  war. 

The  plan  is  a  modification  of  a  table  contributed  by  Mr.  E.  J.  W. 
Gibb  to  my  "  Catalogue  of  Oriental  Coins  in  the  British  Museum," 
vol.  viii. 


I? 


XL 


THE  DOWNWARD   ROAD. 
(1566-164O.) 

The  reign  of  Suleyman  the  Great  forms  the  ch'max. 
of  Turkish  history.  In  three  centuries  the  little  clan 
of  Othmanlis  had  spread  from  their  narrow  district 
in  Asia  Minor  till  they  had  the  command  of  the 
Miediterraneaii,  the  Euxme,  and  the  Red  Sea.  Their 
dominions  now  extended  from  Mekka  to  Buda,  from 
Baghdad  to  Algiers.  Both  the  northern  and  southern 
shores  of  the  Black  Sea  were  theirs  ;  a  large  part 
of  modern  Austria- Hungary  owned  their  sway  ;  and 
North  Africa  from  the  Syrian  frontier  to  the  boundary 
of  the  Empire  of  Morocco  had  been  subdued  by  their 
arms. 

The  three  centuries  that  remain  to  be  described 
consist  of  one  long  decline,  relieved  indeed  now  and 
then  by  a  temporary  revival  of  the  old  warlike  spirit 
of  the  people,  but  nevertheless  a  steady  and  inevitable 
decline.  The  causes  of  this  downward  course  are 
partly  external  and  partly  depend  upon  the  gradual 
deterioration  of  the  Turks  themselves.  The  growth 
of  Russia  and  the  combination  of  a  group  of  brilliant 
leaders   in   Hungary,   Poland,    and    Austria,  are    the 


206  THE  DOWNWARD  ROAD, 

most  important  of  the  outward  causes  which  led  to 
the  narrowing  of  the  Turkish  boundaries  :  but  these 
by  themselves  would  hardly  have  sufficed  to  reduce 
the  Ottoman  Empire  to  its  present  decrepit  condition, 
had  there  not  been  internal  cankers  which  sapped  its 
ancient  vigour.  The  very  nature  of  the  empire  de- 
manded extraordinary  energy  and  wisdom  to  ensure 
its  continuance.  A  power  founded  upon  military 
predominance  and  exercised  upon  numerous  alien 
races  and  hostile  creeds  needed  peculiar  care,  both 
in  maintaining  the  efficiency  of  the  army  and  in 
conciliating  the  prejudices  and  winning  the  respect,  if 
not  the  affection,  of  the  Christian  subjects  who  formed 
the  majority  of  the  European  population. 

The  Turkish  Government,  however,  cared  for  none 

of  these  things.     When  the  energy  and  genius  of  a 

series  of  great  rulers  had  brought  the  empire  to  the 

height  of  renown,  the  too  common  result  ensued  ;  a 

line  of  weak  and  vicious   Sultans   succeeded  to  the 

vast  dominions  which  had  been  won  by  their  ancestors* 

swords  and  retained  by  their  administrative  skill,  and 

these  degenerate   scions  of  a  heroic  stock,  thought 

only  of  the  enjoyments  which  their  great  possessions 

'       permitted,  not   of  the  conditions  which  might  ensure 

-       their  permanence.     The  army,  deprived  of  the  valiant 

iSultans  who  once  led  them  to  battle,  lost  all  respect 

Tor  the  idlers  who  preferred  the  ignoble  luxury  of  the 

harem   to  the  fierce  joys  of  war;  and  a   disaffected 

soldiery,  soon  learning  its  power,  set  up  and  deposed 

j       Sultans  as  seemed   good  to  it,  and   extorted  heavy 

■        bribes  from  each  successive  puppet  of  its  choice.    The 

unbounded  exercise  of  capricious  power  quickly  led  to 


DECAY  OF   THE  ARMY.  2oy 

licence  and  corruption,  and  the  ]anissarig.§.  by  degrees 
lost  their  martial  character  and  could  not  be  trusted 
as  of  old  in  the  field.  A  bribe  was  of  more  conse- 
quence to  them  than  a  victory.  No  efforts,  besides, 
were  made  to  keep  pace  with  the  improvements  which 
other  nations  were  introducing  in  the  weapons  and 
tactics  of  war,  and  even  if  their  mettle  had  been  as 
finely  tempered  as  of  old,  the  Turkish  troops  were 
not  equipped  as  they  should  have  been  when  they 
met  the  battalions  of  Prince  Eugene,  of  Sobie^ki,  or 
Suvorov.  The  worst  feature  of  all  was  their  ineffi- 
cient officering.  Their  commanders  were  appointed 
not  for  merit,  but  in  consideration  of  bribes,  and  such 
a  system  naturally  entailed  the  deterioration  of  every 
regiment,  and  its  evil  effects  are  visible  to  the  present 
day.  With  effeminate  Sultans,  incompetent  officers, 
and  corrupt  administrators,  with  a  weak  head  and 
corrupt  members,  indeed,  it  was  to  be  expected  that 
the  whole  man  should  also  become  corrupt  and  power- 
less,— the  "  sick  man  "  for  whom  Russia  prescribed  a 
euthanasia. 

To  tell  the  various  stages  of  decay  in  detail  would 
only  weary  the  reader  with  a  catalogue  of  defeats, 
varied  by  occasional  reprisals  ;  a  series  of  treaties  of 
peace,  each  involving  loss  or  humiliation,  each  sworn 
for  ever  and  broken  in  a  few  years  ;  an  inventory  of 
weak,  corrupt,  or  misguided  rulers  and  officers,  whose 
baseness  and  incompetence  are  cast  into  deeper  shadow 
by  such  rare  apparitions  as  the  family  of  the  Koprilis, 
as  Sultans  like  Murad  IV,  and  Mahmud  II.,  or 
generals  like  the  Damad  All,  "  the  dauntless  Vizier," 
the  conqueror  of  the  Morea,  and  the  chivalrous  Topal 


208  THE  DOWNWARD  ROAD, 

Othman,  the  antagonist  of  Nadir  Shah.  It  will  only 
be  possible  to  present  a  brief  outline  of  the  successive 
events  which  marked  the  gradual  shrinking  of  the 
Turkish  Empire  to  its  present  limits. 
.^^  The  inroads  of  Russia,  not  at  first  the  most  im- 
portant, but  growing  in  force  and  menace  with  each 
succeeding  war,  are  reserved  for  another  chapter. 
The  other  principal  opponents  of  the  Turks  were 
Austria  ("aided  \)y  Hungary  an^  Poland),  Venice,  and 
Persia^ 

Venice  was  the  first  to  dispute  the  supremacy  of 
Suleyman's  empire.  The  great  Sultan  had  been 
succeeded  by  his  son,  who  received  the/too  appropriate 
sobriquet  of  Selim  the  Sot.]  But  it  was  not  in  the 
nature  of  things  that  the  splendid  system  organized 
by  Suleyman  and  his  able  officers  should  fall  to  the 
ground  in  the  hands  of  a  single  worthless  successor. 
Many  of  Suleyman's  agents  were  still  alive,  and 
especially  the  Grand  Vezir  Sokolli  Mohammed  spared 
no  pains  to  carry  on  the  government  in  the  spirit  of  his 
master.  Great  mih'tary  exploits  were  at  first  contem- 
plated. Sinan  Pasha  reduced  Arabia  in  1570,  and 
prayers  were  said  in  the  Holy  City  of  Mekka  for  the 
"  Sultan  of  Sultans,  Khakan  of  Khakans,  lord  of  the 
two  seas  and  two  continents,  and  the  two  sanc- 
tuaries of  Islam,  Sellm  Khan,  son  of  Suleyman 
Khan."  ^  An  expedition  was  sent  to  Astrakhan,  as 
will  be  related  further  on,^  but  this  was  not  among 
the  triumphs  of  the  Porte  ;  only  a  fourth  of  the  army 
returned  alive  to  Constantinople.  The  conquest  of 
Cyprus   from    the   Venetians   was  the  next  venture. 

*  Von  Hammer,  ii.  398.  "  See  page  251. 


BATTLE   OF  LEPANTO.  209 

It  was  entrusted  to  a  rival  of  Sokolli,  one  Lala 
Mustafa,  who  conducted  it  with  equal  rashness  and 
cruelty.  It  cost  him  fifty  thousand  men,  and  he 
revenged  himself  in  the  hour  of  success  by  flaying 
alive  the  gallant  commandant  Bragadino. 

The  rule  of  the  sea,  thus  materially  strengthened, 
was  soon  destined  to  receive  a  check.  (  A  great  mari- 
time league  was  formed  by  the  Venetians,  Spaniards, 
Knights  of  Malta,) and  others,  and  a  fleet  of  two 
hundred  galleys  and  six  huge  galliasses  was  collected 
by  the  confederates  and  placed  under  the  command 
of  Don  John  of  Austria,  a  young  man  famous  for  his 
recent  subjugation  of  the  Moors  in  the  Alpuxarras,i 
and  reputed  the  greatest  general  of  the  time.  Against 
this  formidable  array  the  Turks  were  able  to  bring 
together  an  even  larger  fleet.  Two  hundred  and  forty 
galleys,  besides  sixty  smaller  vessels,  were  riding  in 
the  Gulf  of  Patras  under  the  command  of  Muezzin- 
zada,  Uluj  All,  and  other  tried  admirals,  when,  on 
October  7,  1571,  Don  John  brought  his  fleet  out 
of  tTTe^'Gulf  ot  Le'panto  and  gave  battle.  He 
formed  his  centre  into  a  crescent  under  the  command 
of  the  celebrated  Prince  of  Parma,  and  took  post 
himself  in  the  van.  The  galliasses  were  ranged 
like  redoubts  in  front  of  the  line.  The  Turks  were 
the  first  to  open  fire,  and  pressing  forward  suffered 
severely  from  the  broadsides  of  the  tall  galliasses 
which  they  had  to  pass  before  they  could  come  into 
close  action  with  Don  John.  The  two  chief  admirals 
on  either  sides  locked  their  vessels  together,  and  for 
two  hours  a  deadly  fight  went  on  from  the  decks.     At 

*  See  Lane-Poole,  "  The  Story  of  the  Moors  in  Spain,"  p.  278. 


210  THE   DOWNWARD   ROAD, 

last  the  Turkish  commander  fell,  and  his  flag-ship  was 
boarded  :  the  Ottoman  centre  was  broken,  and  the 
right  wing  gave  way.  The  left,  under  Uluj  All,  gained 
some  successes  over  Doria,  a  nephew  of  the  great  ad- 
miral of  that  name,  and  took  some  of  the  enemy's  ships, 
but  when  he  saw  the  collapse  of  the  centre  and  right 
he  fought  his  way  out  of  the  melley,  and  with  forty 
galleys,  the  remnant  of  a  noble  fleet,  set  sail  for  the 
Bosphorus.  Ninety-four  Turkish  ships  were  sunk  or 
burnt,  at  least  a  hundred  and  thirty  were  captured  ; 
the  Turks  lost  30,000  men,  and  15,000  Christian  galley 
slaves  were  set  free.^ 

The  result  of  this  tremendous  defeat  ought  to  have 
been  the  annihilation  of  the  Turkish  command  of  the 
seas  ;  but  it  was  nothing  of  the  kind.  Its  moral  effect 
in  showing  that  the  terrible  Ottomans  were  not  i% 
vincible  was  lasting,  but  its  immediate  influence  on 
the  balance  of  maritime  power  in  the  Mediterranean 
was  comparatively  slight.  The  Christian  confederates, 
perfectly  satisfied  with  their  triumph,  dispersed  their 
fleet,  and  began  to  give  thanks  for  their  victory  and 
indulge  in  their  favourite  jealousies,  but  the  Turks 
steadily  set  to  work  to  repair  their  misfortunes. 
In  a  few  months,  by  incredible  energy  and  devotion,  in 
which  even  the  besotted  Sultan  took  a  share, a  new  fleet 
of  two  hundred  and  fifty  sail  was  fitted  out ;  and  so 
little  did  the  victory  of  Lepanto  encourage  the  Vene- 
tians that  they  threw  over  their  allies  and  sued  for  a 
separate  peace.  They  not  only  agreed  that  the  Sultan 
was  to  remain  in  possession  of  Cyprus,  but  were  so 
good  as   to  repay  him  thecost   of   taking  it!     The 

*  Von  Hammer,  ii.  423. 


..^-^ 


H 


; 


CICALA.  '  213 

memory  of  I^e^anij^  was  wiped  out  of  the  Turkish 
mind. 

There  was  comparative  peace  with  the  Venetians 
for  a  quarter  of  a  century  after  this,  but  it  was  as 
much  due  to  harem  influence  as  respect  for  any  treaty. 
Murad  III.,  who  succeeded  his  father  Selim  in  1574, 
was  a  feeble  creature  who  let  the  offices  of  State  be 
sold  by  sycophants  to  the  highest  bidder,  and  himself 
be  ruled  by  his  women  ;  but  among  the  latter  was  fortu- 
nately at  least  one  lady  of  intelligence.  Safla,  a  cap- 
tured Venetian  of  the  family  of  Baffo,  governed  her 
imperial  husband  in  the  interests  of  her  countrymen, 
and  when  he  died  in  1595,  and  was  succeeded  by  her 
son,  Mohammed  III. — one  of  Murad's  hundred  and 
two  children,  of  whom  nineteen  were  put  to  death 
on  their  brother's  accession — she  found  the  power  of 
mother  in  no  way  inferior  to  that  of  wife.  Her  chief 
ally  was  Cicala,  a  Genoese  of  noble  birth  who 
had  been  made  prisoner  in  his  youth  by  the  Turks. 
His  father.  Count  Cicala,  had  married  a  captive 
"Turkess,"  and  the  son  followed  his  example  by 
espousing  a  granddaughter  of  Suleyman  the  Great. 
The  combination  of  personal  merit  and  backstairs 
influence  insured  the  young  man's  rise,  and  in  due 
time  he  obtained  important  commands,  iln  1596  he 
rendered  a  signal  service  to  his  adopted  country. 
Three  days  the  imperial  troops  of  Austria  and  Tran- 
sylvania fought  with  the  Turks  on  the  plain  of  the 
Keresztes.  The  Christians  seemed  about  to  triumph, 
and  twice  the  Sultan  thought  of  flight.  Then  Cicala 
swooped  down  upon  them  at  the  head  of  his  horse- 
men, and  in  half  an  hour  archduke  and  prince  were 


214  THE  DOWNWARD  ROAD. 

riding  for  dear  life,  followed  by  a  panting  mob  of 
what  had  once  been  soldiers,  and  leaving  fifty  thou- 
sand corpses  on  the  field. 

[One  such  success,  however,  hardly  relieved  a  reign 
composed  of  military  revolts,  petty  external  wars, 
provincial  tyrants,  and  general  disaffection.  It  was 
a  sign  of  the  lowered  status  of  the  Turkish  Empire 
that  a  treaty  was  concluded  with  Austria,  after  the 
usual  campaigns,  in  the  reign  of  the  next  Sultan, 
Ahmed  I.,  a  boy  of  fourteen,  in  which  the  Porte  was 
treated  as  an  ordinary  equal  instead  of  as  a  dreaded 
master,  and  the  Austrian  tribute  was  discontinued. 
Turkey  was  no  longer  the  terror  of  Europe.  Indeed, 
had  Christendom  been  less  divided  and  absorbed  in 
,  the  Spanish  wars  at  that  time,  it  is  a  question  whether 
I  the  Ottoman  Empire  might  not  then  have  come  to 
\the  end  which  has  so  often  been  predicted.  England 
had  an  ambassador  at  the  Porte  from  the  time  of 
Elizabeth  (1583)  who  strenuously  invited  the  Sultan 
to  join  his  mistress  against  Spain,  but  England  was 
in  no  condition  to  support  the  Grand  Signior  against 
his  hiany  and  powerful  enemies,  nor  had  our  tradi- 
tional policy  in  the  East  yet  been  formulated.  The 
Indian  Empire  and  the  preservation  of  our  road 
thither  were  in  the  future.  Nothing  seemingly  but 
their  own  divisions  kept  the  Powers  from  partitioning 
the  Ottoman  provinces  at  the  beginning  of  the  seven- 
teenth century.  Indeed,  Sir  Thomas  Roe,  who  wrote 
an  interesting  account  of  his  mission  to  Turkey,  looked 
with  confidence  to  the  speedy  collapse  of  the  Otto- 
man State. 

But  peace  reigned  for  some  time  on  the  northern 


THE  GRAxND   bl< 


MURAD   IV,  217 

frontiers  of  Turkey.  The  emperor  of  Austria  was 
fully  alive  to  the  advantage  of  keeping  on  friendly 
terms  in  the  south  when  the  Thirty  Years'  War  was 
raging  in  the  north,  and  the  Turks  had  no  motive  for 
aggression,  since  they  had  so  far  retained  their  con- 
quests. The  new  Sultan,  Murad  IV.,  who  ascended 
the  throne  in  1623,  though  fired  with  something  of 
the  old  warlike  energy  of  his  ancestors,  preferred  to 
exert  it  in  another  direction,  and  concluded  a  fresh 
peace  with  the  emperor  which  ensured  tranquillity  to 
the  Turks  on  their  northern  marches  during  the  first  | 
half  of  the  seventeenth  century.  '•"-^ 

Murad  was  the  last  fighting  Sultan  of  the  race  ofi 
Othman.  The  enemy  he  chose  for  his  attack  was 
I^ersia^.  In  the  time  of  Murad  III.  there  had  been  a|/ 
successful  war  with  the  Shah,  which  ended  in  a  peac^ 
in  1590,  whereby  the  Turks  secured  Georgia,  Tebriz, 
and  some  of  the  Persian  provinces  adjoining  the 
southern  shores  of  the  Caspian  Sea.  These  acquisi-  . 
tions  had  again  and  again  been  disputed  by  the  Persians, 
and  by  a  peace  in  i6ig  the  Shah  had  recovered  his 
losses  and  the  boundary  between  the  two  kingdoms 
had  been  restored  to  the  limits  which  had  been  drawn 
at  the  time  of  Sellm.  Murad  IV.  resolved  to  regain 
the  conquests  of  his  namesake.  He  had  however  to 
contend  with  grievous  obstacles.  He  was  but  a  boy 
of  twelve  when  he  came  to  the  thro.ne,  and  never  was 
an  empire  more  in  need  of  a  strong  man's  hand. 
Disasters  and  rebellions  vyere  announced  from  all  "il 
quarters.  The  Persians  were  triumphant,  Asia  Minor\ 
was  in  revolt,  the  provincial  governors  were  refractory; 
the  three  Barbary  states  were  practically  independent; 


2l8  THE   DOWNWARD   ROAD. 

the  treasury  was  empty,  the  people  were  starving,  and 
the  army  was  both  turbulent  and  Hcentious. 
y  With  the  help  of  a  capable  mother  the  young  Sultan 
contrived  to  maintain  his  authority  in  some  sort  in 
the  face  of  such  difficulties,  but  not  without  many  a 
painful  humiliation.  In  the  ninth  year  of  his  reign 
the  Sipahis  mutinied,  and  gathering  together  in  the 
Hippodrome  demanded  the  heads  of  some  of  the 
officers  of  state,  and  especially  of  Hafiz,  the  Grand 
Vezir.  They  pressed  into  the  courts  of  the  Seraglio, 
crying,  "  Give  us  the  seventeen  heads  !  "  The  choice 
lay  between  submission  and  abdication.  The  Sultan 
vainly  used  every  argument  and  entreaty.  At 
last  he  sent  for  the  Grand  Vezlr.  Hafiz  did  not 
shrink  from  the  sacrifice.  "  I  have  seen  my  fate  in  a 
dream  to-day,"  he  said,  "  and  I  am  not  afraid  to  die." 
He  would  not  however  allow  the  guilt  of  his  blood  to 
rest  on  his  sorrowing  master's  head,  but  resolved  to 
seek  death  in  open  conflict  with  the  mutineers.  "  My 
Padishah,"  he  said,  "  may  a  thousand  slaves  like  Hafiz 
die  for  thee  :"  and  after  reciting  some  verses  from  the 
Koran,  he  strode  forth  into  the  court,  while  the  Sultan 
and  his  retinue  sobbed  and  wept  Hafiz  struck  down 
the  first  assailant,  and  then  fell  pierced  by  seventeen 
wounds.  The  Sultan  did  not  leave  the  ghastly  scene 
without  uttering  ominous  words  to  the  murderers. 
"  So  help  me  God,"  he  said,  "  ye  men  of  blood,  who 
fear  not  God  nor  are  ashamed  before  God's  Prophet, 
>y    a  terrible  vengeance  shall  overtake  you." 

Gathering  together  some  loyal  troops  the  stern  young 
prince  kept  his  word.  The  mutineers  were  slain  in 
every  province  ;  the  Bosphorus  floated  thick  with  the 


CONQUEST  OF  BAGHDAD,  219 

bodies  of  Sipahis  and  Janissaries  ;  while  the  terrible 
Sultan,  who  had  {ew  rivals  in  sword  or  bow,  patrolled 
the  streets  himself  and  often  carried  out  his  sanguinary 
sentences  with  his  own  strong  hand.  The  death  of 
Hafiz  was  avenged  tenfold,  and  the  authority  of  his 
master  was  established  on  the  foundation  of  terror. 
His  severity  indeed  outshot  the  mark  ;  hundreds  of 
innocent  people  were  ruthlessly  butchered  to  gratify 
the  suspicions  or  even  the  caprices  of  the  tyrant,  in 
whom  the  taste  of  blood  seemed  to  generate  that 
fascinating  appetite  which  it  creates  in  beasts  of  prey. 
It  is  said  that  a  hundred  thousand  persons  paid  the 
last  penalty  by  his  order.  An  inordinate  addiction  to 
wine  still  further  hardened  his  fierce  temper,  but  no 
habits  of  indulgence  seemed  to  shake  his  iron  will  or 
enfeeble  his  martial  frame.  He  watched  over  every 
department  of  his  administration  with  vigilant  eyes  : 
law  and  justice,  order  and  discipline,  everywhere  pre- 
vailed as  they  had  not  been  known  since  the  days  of 
the  Great  Suleyman  :  tyrant  he  was,  but  he  allowed  no 
other  man  to  tyrannize,  and  the  people  realized  that 
the  tyranny  of  one  is  liberty  compared  to  the  aimless 
tyranny  of  the  many. 

As  soon  as  he  could  safely  leave  the  capital,  Murad 
set  forth  to  restore  order  and  peace  on  his  Asiatic 
frontiers.  In  1635  he  reconquered  Erivan,  and  visited 
the  local  governors  of  Asia  Minor  with  stern  punish- 
ment for  their  disaffection.  For  months  his  only 
pillow  was  his  saddle  and  his  coverlet  a  horsecloth. 
In  1638  he  marched  to  retake  Baghdad,  which  the 
Persians  had  recovered  since  its  first  capture  by  Suley- 
man.    The  garrison  made  a  desperate  resistance.    But 


220  THE  DOWNWARD   ROAD. 

Murad  led  his  men  in  person,  worked  in  the  trenches 
with  his  own  hands,  and,  when  the  Persians  sent  out  a 
stalwart  champion  to  defy  the  besiegers  to  single  com- 
bat, it  was  Murad  himself  who  took  up  the  gauntlet  and 
after  a  hard  fight  clove  the  giant's  skull  from  pate 
to  chin.  The  chain  armour  in  which  he  fought,  a 
.beautiful  suit  of  interwoven  steel  and  gold  links,  is  still 
tQj)e  seen  in  the  Treasury  at  Constantinople.  Bagh- 
dad fell  and  a  fearful  butchery  ensued,  in  which  only 
three  hundred  of  the  thirty  thousand  men  of  the  garrison 
escaped,  nor  did  the  unarmed  inhabitants  fare  better. 
Peace  was  made  with  Persia  on  the  basis  of  Suleyman's 
treaty  of  1555  ;  Erivan  was  restored  to  the  Shah,  but 
Baghdad  has  remained  ever  since  in  the  hands  of  the 
Turks.  Murad  made  his  triumphal  entry  into  Con- 
stantinople amid  the  shouts  of  the  people,  while  the 
Bosphorus  and  Golden  Horn  blazed  with  salutes. 

The  following  year  (1640)  he  died  at  the  age  of  28, 
the  last  of  the  warrior  Sultans  of  Turkey. 


XII. 

THE   RULE   OF   THE   VEZIRS. 
(1640- 1757.) 

Henceforward, until  we  reach  the  present  century 
and  the  person  of  Mahmud  IL,  the  names  of  the  twelve 
Sultans  who  succeeded  Murad  IV.  upon  the  throne 
of  Turkey  possess  little  interest  or  individuality  for 
us.  Secluded  in  the  Seraglio,  and  abandoned,  with 
few  exceptions,  to  most  of  the  worst  vices  that  can 
degrade  body  and  soul,  they  left  the  care  or  neglect  of 
their  empire  to  the  Vezirs,  and,  accordingly  as  the 
Prime  Minister  was  a  capable  or  an  incapable  man,  the 
empire  was  retarded  or  accelerated  in  its  downward 
course.  At  the  beginning  of  the  period  upon  which 
we  are  now  entering,  the  Porte  was  fortunate  in  the 
possession  of  an  Albanian  family  of  remarkable 
powers,  whose  influence  checked  for  a  while  the  dis- 
astrous tendencies  of  the  empire.  Koprili  Moham- 
med, the  first  of  this  stock,  was  chosen  Grand  Vezir 
(1656)  at  the  age  of  seventy.  His  inflexible  yet  just 
severity  restored  order  in  all  parts  of  the  empire.  For 
five  years  his  eyes  searched  out  treason  and  wrong- 
doing in  every  corner  of  the  Sultan's  dominions,  and 
never  was  a  strong  will  better  obeyed  than  during  this 
epoch.     Thirty-six  thousand  people  were  executed  by 


222  THE  RULE   OF  THE    VEZIRS. 

his  command,  and  the  chief  executioner  admitted 
that  in  these  five  years  he  had  with  his  own  hands 
strangled  over  four  thousand,  or  nearly  three  a  day. 
The  old  Vezir  had  previously  borne  the  reputation  of  a 
mild  and  humane  man,  but  he  saw  that  only  strong 
measures  could  restore  tranquillity  to  the  distracted 
empire,  and  he  did  not  shrink  from  the  course  which  his 
reason  dictated.  He  died  in  1661,  and  was  succeeded 
in  his  office  by  his  even  greater  son  Ahmed.  For 
/fifteen  years  Koprili-zada  Ahmed  was  virtual  Sultan, 
j  and  he  is  admittedly  the  greatest  statesman  of  Turkey. 
He  had  as  firm  a  will  and  as  stern  a  sense  of  duty  as 
Mohammed,  but  he  had  the  advantage  of  a  better  edu- 
cation and  all  the  added  power  and  experience  due  to 
his  father's  example.  As  a  civil  administrator  he  was 
unequalled,  but  as  a  general  in  the  field  he  was  doomed 
to  suffer  heavy  reverses. 

The  constant  intrigues  which  marked  the  changes 
of  succession  in  Hungary  and  Transylvania  once  more 
embroiled  the  Porte  with  Austria,  and  it  fell  to  Koprili- 
zada  Ahmed  to  lead  the  armies  of  Turkey  to  the 
Danube.  In  the  battle  of  St.Gotthard  (1664)  he  received 
a  terrible  defeat  at  the  hands  of  Raymond,  Count  of 
Montecuculi.  The  Christians  were  outnumbered  in 
the  proportion  of  four  to  one,  and  the  contempt  of  the 
Turks  was  increased  when  they  saw  the  French  con- 
tingent come  riding  down  with  their  shaved  cheeks 
and  powdered  perukes.  They  ridiculed  the  charge  of 
the  "young  girls  ;"  but  the  "girls"  and  Montecuculi 
were  too  strong  for  their  tried  veterans  : — ten  thousand 
Turks  were  left  on  the  field,  and  the  VezIr  was  com- 
pelled to  beat  an  ignominious  retreat. 


miL  GRAND  VEZIR. 


CRETE  :   CHOCZIM.  225 

Some  compensation  for  this  disaster  was  found  in 
the  success  which  at  length  attended  the  operations  of 
the  Ottomans  against  the  island  of  Candia,  or  Crete. 
The  Turks  were  still  renowned  for  their  siege  works,  and 
though  it  took  them  more  than  twenty  years  to  subdue 
the  determined  resistance  of  the  Venetians  under 
their  gifted  leader  Morosini,  at  last,  in  1669,  the  island 
was  theirs.  During  the  last  three  years  they  had 
made  fifty-six  desperate  assaults,  and  the  garrison  had 
replied  with  ninety  sorties  ;  more  than  thirteen  hun- 
dred mines  had  been  fired  on  both  sides,  thirty  thou- 
sand Turks  had  fallen,  and  nearly  half  as  many 
Venetians.  The  successful  termination  of  this  memor- 
able siege  did  much  to  restore  the  waning  confidence 
of  the  Porte. 

It  was,  however,  but  a  gleam  of  sunshine  in  an 
Erebus  of  gloom.  A  new  and  formidable  enemy 
appeared  in  the  north.  The  Cossacks  of  the  Ukraine,, 
had  been  claimed  as  Polish  subjects  by  the  king  of| 
Poland  against  their  will,  and  the  Porte  proceeded  t( 
defend  them.  The  struggle  was  short  ;  the  kin| 
quickly  abandoned  his  pretensions,  agreed  to  pay 
tribute,  and  even  surrendered  Podolia  as  well  as  the 
Ukraine  to  Turkey.  The  Polish  nobles,  headed  by 
John  Sobieski,  a  name  which  stands  in  the  front  rank 
of  European  generals,  refused  to  abide  by  these  terms,' 
and,  leading  their  forces  against  the  Turks,  adminiJ 
stered  two  crushing  defeats,  at  Choczim  in  1673,  and 
at  Lemberg  in  1675.  The  Turks,  however,  were\ 
better  able  to  carry  on  a  long  war  than  the  Polish 
nobles,  and  in  spite  of  their  victories,  the  latter  were 
glad  to  come  to  terms,  by  which  the  Ottomans  re- 


226  THE  RULE   OF   THE    VEZIRS. 

tained   the    advantages   which   they    had    previously- 
secured. 

A  defeat  followed  by  an  accession  of  territory  was 
no  very  calamitous  ending  to  Koprili's-zada  Ahmed's 
life,  though  the  Ukraine  had  soon  afterwards  to  be 
ceded  to  Russia.  But  when  the  gifted  family  which 
had  already  supplied  two  eminent  men  to  the  highest 
office  in  the  State  suffered  a  passing  eclipse,  and  anew 
and  temerarious  Vezir  was  appointed,  disasters  of  a 
less  chequered  character  poured  upon  the  Turkish 
I  arms.  The  policy  of  Austria  towards  Hungary  had 
I  lately  become  more  and  more  severe  and  unconcili- 
'atory.  The  Protestant  Magyars  especially  resented 
the  proselytizing  efforts  of  the  Jesuits  and  the  bigotry 
of  the  Catholic  party  towards  its  unorthodox  subjects. 
Conspiracies  were  set  on  foot,  and  when  discovered 
were  punished  with  unsparing  severity  ;  but  Hun- 
gary remained,  at  least  as  disaffected  to  Austrian 
supremacy  as  before.  Indeed,  it  was  known  that  the 
nobles  of  Hungary  preferred  the  rule  of  Mohammedans 
to  that  of  bigoted  Catholics.  The  Porte  was  fully 
informed  of  these  matters,  and  a  violent  war  party 
sprang  up  at  Constantinople  ;  they  eagerly  pressed 
for  an  advance  on  Vienna  at  the  moment  when  Hun- 
gary might  be  counted  upon  as  an  ally. 

Accordingly  in  1682,  the  new  Grand  VezIr,  Kara 
Mustafa,  seized  this  favourable  opportunity  of  put- 
ting an  end  once  for  all  to  the  detested  house  of 
Hapsburg,  and  marched  northwards  with  a  vast  host 
of  400,000  men,  officered  in  part  by  French  captains 
and  engineers,  lent  for  the  service  by  Louis  XIV.,  who 
was  anxious  to  see  the  Imperial  power  humbled  in 


yoHN  SOBIESKI.  227 

the  dust.  It  seemed  as  if  there  was  nothing  to  arrest 
the  advance  of  the  Turks.  The  Christians,  as  usual, 
were  wholly  unprepared.  When  once  the  terrible 
horsetails  had  been  seen  retreating  towards  the  south, 
it  was  the  custom  of  the  princes  of  Europe  to  disband 
their  armies  and  neglect  their  fortifications,  and  to 
abandon  themselves  to  all  the  delights  of  quarrelling 
among  themselves.  Charles  of  Lorraine,  indeed,  who 
had  fought  beside  Montecuculi  at  the  battle  of  St. 
Gotthard,  was  ready  to  take  his  part  in  the  defence  ; 
but  he  could  only  muster  33,000  men,  and  what 
were  they  against  so  many,  above  all,  when  a  large 
number  of  them  had  to  be  told  off  to  sundry  fortresses 
for  garrison  duty?  Disaffected  Hungary  sought  to 
make  peace  with  both  sides  by  sending  a  miserable 
contingent  of  3,009  under  Esterhazy.  But  for  one 
circumstance  the  triumph  of  the  Turks  might  have 
been  predicted  with  certainty  :  this  was  a  treaty  of 
alliance  which  had  just  been  signed  between  the 
Emperor  Leopolc|  and  Sobieski,  who  was  now  king  of 
Poland.  It  is  a  significant  fact  that  when  these  two 
sovereigns  bound  themselves  to  make  common  cause 
against  the  Turk,  the  memory  of  many  past  conventions 
of  the  kind  which  had  been  dissolved  by  the  Pope's  dis- 
pensation, recurred  to  their  minds,  and  while  they  swore 
an  oath,  sanctified  by  the  Cardinal  Legate,  to  stand 
by  one  another,  they  appended  a  clause  which  stipu- 
lated that  this  oath  was  not  subject  to  retractation  by 
Papal  dispensation.  The  combination  of  the  Legate's 
sacred  office,  with  the  guarding  clause  against  its  per- 
jured misuse,  is  one  of  the  curiosities  of  history. 

John  Sobieski,  however,  though  he  had  sworn  to 


228  THE   RULE   OF   THE    VEZIRS, 

help,  and  was  known  to  be  true  to  his  word,  was  still 
in  Poland,  and  meanwhile  the  Grand  Vezir  was  push- 
ing on  to  Vienna.  Despairing  of  succour  in  time,  the 
emperor  and  his  court  fled  ignominiously  to  Bavaria. 
The  city  was,  in  truth,  very  ill  prepared  to  withstand 
a  siege,  especially  when  conducted  by  such  good 
engineers  as  the  Turks.  The  fortifications  were  in  a 
state  of  decay,  and  it  will  hardly  be  believed  that  the 
very  tools  necessary  for  their  repair  were  not  to  be 
had  in  Vienna.  It  was  a  mere  chance  that  the  Grand 
Vezir  loitered  somewhat  on  his  way.  Had  he  used 
forced  marches,  he  must  infallibly  have  entered  the 
capital  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire  without  so  much 
as  striking  a  blow. 

The  delay,  little  as  it  was,  gave  the  people  time 
to  prepare.  Count  Stahremberg,  a  true  hero,  was 
appointed  to  conduct  the  defence,  and  the  whole 
population  laboured  incessantly  at  the  work  of  repair- 
ing the  fortifications.  Students  of  the  University 
and  members  of  the  trades-guilds  formed  themselves 
into  volunteer  corps  and  drilled  with  might  and  main. 
Out  of  the  population  of  60,000  (for  half  the  people 
had  fled)  some  20,000  were  under  arms  at  the  dreaded 
moment  when  the  flames  of  burning  villages  and  the 
news  of  treacherous  butchery  told  of  the  near  ap- 
proach of  the  invaders.  At  last  the  orders  were  given 
for  the  burning  of  the  suburbs,  that  they  might 
not  serve  as  cover  to  the  enemy  ;  and  on  the  14th 
of  July  the  siege  began.  The  island  suburb  of 
Leopoldstadt  soon  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Turks, 
and  became  a  smouldering  p)'rc.  Assault  after 
assault  was  made  and  repulsed  ;  mine  was  answered 


ST.  STEPHEN  S  CATHEDRAL,   VIFNNA. 


SECOND   SIEGE   OF   VIENNA.  23 1 

by  countermine  ;  but  Stahremberg,  as  he  looked  down 
upon  the  operations  from  the  stone  seat,  which  is  still 
to  be  seen  in  the  lofty  spire  of  St  Stephen's,  saw  with 
sadness  that  inch  by  inch  the  Turks  were  gaining 
ground. 

The  assaults  so  far  had  indeed  been  fruitless,  for  the 
Turkish  scimitar  was  no  match  for  the  German  hal- 
berd, scythe,  and  battle-axe  :  but  the  mines  were 
creeping  towards  the  walls,  and  sickness  was  raging 
in  the  city.  To  sickness  followed  famine.  Cats  were 
so  valuable,  that  a  chase  after  the  animal  over  the 
roofs  became  a  recognized  form  of  sport.  The  reliev- 
ing army  was  indeed  known  -  to  be  on  the  move,  but 
would  it  come  in  time,  or  would  it  succeed  in  driving 
away  the  still  immense,  though  diminishing,  hosts  of 
the  Turks  ? 

On  the  6th  of  September,  rockets  announced  that 
Sobieski  was  indeed  at  hand.  The  people  redoubled 
their  efforts  when  they  knew  of  the  presence  of  the 
great  captain.  He  had  united  the  Polish,  Saxon, 
Austrian,  Bavarian,  and  other  contingents,  to  the  num- 
ber of  some  85,000  men,  and  had  occupied  the  Kahlen- 
berg,  the  one  strategic  position  essential  for  the  relief 
of  the  city.  His  men,  moreover,  were  fresh,  while  the 
100,000  troops  whom  the  Vezir  had  still  in  camp 
were  exhausted  by  a  two  months'  siege,  and  many 
privations  and  labours.  On  the  lOth,  the  sound  of 
guns  was  heard  in  the  city.  They  proceeded  from  the 
Kahlenberg.  The  great  contest  was  beginning.  How 
the  thundering  of  the  cannon  was  listened  to  in 
Vienna  may  be  imagined.  The  people,  trembling 
with    anxiety,    were    held    in    suspense    for     many 


232  THE  RULE  OF   THE   VEZIRS. 

hours.  It  was  a  supreme  crisis  in  the  history  of 
Europe. 

Meanwhile  Sobieski  had  taken  his  measures  for  its 
relief. 

"At  sunrise  of  the  T2th  of  September  the  crest  of 
the  Kahlenberg  was  concealed  by  one  of  those 
autumnal  mists  which  give  promise  of  a  genial, 
perhaps  a  sultry  day,  and  which,  clinging  to  the 
wooded  flanks  of  the  acclivity,  grew  denser  as  it 
descended,  till  it  rested  heavily  on  the  shores  and  the 
stream  itself  of  the  river  below.  From  that  summit 
the  usual  fiery  signals  of  distress  had  been  watched 
through  the  night  by  many  an  eye,  as  they  rose 
incessantly  from  the  tower  of  St.  Stephen,  and  now 
the  fretted  spire  of  that  edifice,  so  long  the  target  of 
the  ineffectual  fire  of  the  Turkish  artilleries,  was 
faintly  distinguished  rising  from  the  sea  of  mist.  As 
the  hour  wore  on,  and  the  exhalation  dispersed,  a 
scene  was  disclosed,  which  must  have  made  those 
who  witnessed  it  from  the  Kahlenberg  tighten  their 
saddle-girths,  or  look  to  their  priming.  A  practised 
eye  glancing  over  the  fortifications  of  the  city  could 
discern  from  the  Burg  to  the  Scottish  gate  an  interrup- 
tion of  their  continuity,  a  shapeless  interval  of  rubbish 
and  of  ruin,  which  seemed  as  if  a  battalion  might 
enter  it  abreast.  In  face  of  this  desolation  a  labyrinth 
of  lines  extended  itself,  differing  in  design  from  the 
rectilinear  zigzag  of  a  modern  approach,  and  formed 
of  short  curves  overlapping  each  other,  to  use  a  com- 
parison of  some  writers  of  the  time,  like  the  scales 
of  a  fish.  In  these,  the  Turkish  lines,  the  miner  yet 
crawled  to  his  task,    and   the  storming  parties  were 


THE    TURKISH  LINES.  233 

still  arrayed  by  order  of  the  Vezir,  ready  for  a 
renewal  of  the  assault  so  often  repeated  in  vain. 
The  camp  behind  had  been  evacuated  by  the  fight- 
ing men  ;  the  horsetails  had  been  plucked  from 
before  the  tents  of  the  pashas,  but  their  harems  still 
tenanted  the  canvas  city ;  masses  of  Christian  cap- 
tives awaited  there  their  doom  in  chains ;  camels 
and  drivers  and  camp  followers  still  peopled  the  long 
streets  of  tents  in  all  the  confusion  of  fear  and  sus- 
pense. Nearer  to  the  base  of  the  hilly  range  of  the 
Kahlenberg  and  the  Leopoldsberg,  the  still  imposing 
numbers  of  the  Turkish  army  were  drawn  up  in 
battle  array,  ready  to  dispute  the  egress  of  the 
Christian  columns  from  the  passes,  and  prevent  de- 
ployment on  the  plaiUo  To  the  westward,  on  the 
reverse  flank  of  the  range.  Christian  troops  might  be 
seen  toiling  up  the  ascent.  As  they  drew  up  on  the 
crest  of  the  Leopoldsberg,  they  formed  a  half-circle 
round  the  chapel  of  the  Margrave,  and  when  the  bell 
for  matins  tolled,  the  clang  of  arms  and  the  noise  of 
the  march  was  silenced.  On  a  space  kept  clear  round 
the  chapel  a  standard  with  a  white  cross  on  a  red 
ground  was  unfurled,  as  if  to  bid  defiance  to  the 
blood-red  flag  planted  in  front  of  the  tent  of  Kara 
Mustafa.  One  shout  of  acclamation  and  defiance 
broke  out  from  the  modern  Crusaders  as  this  emblem 
of  a  holy  war  was  displayed,  and  all  again  was 
hushed  as  the  gates  of  the  castle  were  flung  open, 
and  a  procession  of  the  princes  of  the  empire  and 
the  other  leaders  of  the  Christian  host  moved  forward 
to  the  chapel.  It  was  headed  by  one  whose  tonsured 
crown  and  venerable  beard  betokened   the  monastic 


234  ^^^   RULE  OF  THE    VEZIRS. 

profession.  The  soldiers  crossed  themselves  as  he 
passed,  and  knelt  to  receive  the  blessings  which  he 
gave  them  with  outstretched  hands.  This  was  the 
Capuchin  Marco  Aviano,  friend  and  confessor  to  the 
emperor,  whose  acknowledged  piety  and  exemplary 
life  had  earned  for  him  the  general  reputation  of 
prophetic  inspiration.  He  had  been  the  inseparable 
companion  of  the  Christian  army  in  its  hours  of  diffi- 
culty and  danger,  and  was  now  here  to  assist  at  the 
consummation  of  his  prayers  for  its  success.  Among 
the  stately  warriors  who  composed  his  train,  three 
principally  attracted  the  gaze  of  the  curious.  The 
first  in  rank  and  station  was  a  man  somewhat  past 
theprim^  of  middle  life,  strong  limbed,  and  of  impos- 
ing stature,  but  quick  and  lively  in  speech  and 
gesture;  his  head  partly  shaved,  in  the  fashion  of  his 
semi-Eastern  country  ;  his  hair,  eyes,  and  beard,  dark, 
black  coloured.  His  majestic  bearing  bespoke  the 
soldier-king,  the  scourge  and  dread  of  the  Moslems, 
the  conqueror  of  Choczim,  John  Sobieski.  .  .  . 

"  On  his  left  was  his  youthful  son.  Prince  James, 
armed  with  a  breastplate  and  helmet,  and,  in  addition 
to  an  ordinary  sword,  with  a  short  and  broad-bladcd 
sabre,  a  national  weapon  of  former  ages  ;  on  his  right 
was  the  illustrious  and  heroic  ancestor  of  the  present 
reigning  house  of  Austria,  Charles  of  Lorraine. 
Behind  these  moved  many  of  the  principal  members 
of  those  sovereign  houses  of  Germany.  At  the  side 
of  Louis  of  Baden  was  a  youth  of  slender  frame  and 
moderate  stature,  but  with  that  intelligence  in  his  eye, 
which  pierced  in  after  years  the  cloud  of  many  a 
doubtful  field,  and  swayed  the  fortunes  of  empires. 


RELIEF  OF   VIENNA.  235 

This  was  the  young  Eugene  of  Savoy,  who  drew  his 
maiden  sword  in  the  quarrel  in  which  his  brother  had 
lately  perished.  The  service  of  high  mass  was  per- 
formed in  the  Chapel  by  Aviano,  the  king  assisting  at 
the  altar,  while  the  distant  thunder  of  the  Turkish 
batteries  formed  strange  accompaniment  to  the 
Christian  choir.  The  prince  then  received  the  sacra- 
ment, and  the  religious  ceremony  was  closed  by  a 
general  benediction  of  the  troops  by  Aviano.  The 
king  then  stepped  forward,  and  conferred  knight- 
hood on  his  son,  with  the  usual  ceremonies,  commend- 
ing to  him  as  an  example  of  his  future  course  the 
great  commander  then  present,  the  Duke  of  Lorraine. 
He  then  addressed  his  troops  in  their  own  language 
to  the  following  effect:  'Warriors  and  friends! 
Yonder  in  the  plains  are  our  enemies,  in  numbers 
greater  indeed  than  at  Choczim,  where  we  trod  them 
under  foot.  We  have  to  fight  them  on  a  foreign 
soil,  but  we  fight  for  our  own  country,  and  under  the 
walls  of  Vienna  we  are  defending  those  of  Warsaw 
and  Cracow.  We  have  to  save  to-day,  not  a  single  city, 
but  the  whole  of  Christendom,  of  which  that  city  of 
Vienna  is  the  bulwark.  The  war  is  a  holy  one.  There 
is  a  blessing  on  our  arms,  and  a  crown  of  glory  for 
him  who  falls.  You  fight  not  for  your  earthly 
sovereign,  but  for  the  King  of  kings.  His  power  has 
led  you  unopposed  up  the  difficult  access  to  these 
heights,  and  has  thus  placed  half  the  victory  in  your 
hands.  The  infidels  see  you  now  above  their  heads, 
and,  with  hopes  blasted  and  courage  depressed,  are 
creeping  among  valleys  destined  to  be  their  graves. 
I    have    but    one    command    to   give — Follow    me ! 


236  THE  RULE  OF  THE   VEZIRS. 

The  time   is    come    for    the    young    to   win   their 
spurs.'  "  I 

The  Grand  Vezlr's  preparations  for  the  fight  were 
very  different  from  those  of  his  Christian  opponents. 
He  began,  it  is  said,  by  slaughtering  in  cold  blood  the 
thirty  thousand  captives  who  were  confined  in  his  camp. 
The  majority  were  women  who  had  already  been 
subjected  to  the  degradation  of  a  place  in  the  soldiers' 
harems.  The  butchering  accomplished,  he  posted  his 
men.  Sobieski,  however,  had  already  discovered  that 
Kara  Mustafa  was  no  general,  and  there  could  be 
little  doubt  as  to  the  result  of  the  contest.  For  many 
hours  the  Turks  fought  bravely,  for  with  all  their 
faults,  cowardice  in  battle  is  unknown  to  them  ;  but 
the  dash  of  the  Polish  cuirassiers,  the  steady  per- 
sistence of  the  Saxons  and  Bavarians,  above  all,  the 
unerring  strategy  of  Sobieski,  won  the  day.  With  a 
final  rush,  the  Christians  poured  into  the  Turkish 
camp,  and  then  all  was  panic  and  confusion.  The 
Grand  Vezlr  was  carried  along  in  the  flying  crowd, 
cursing  and  weeping  by  turns,  the  army  melted  like  a 
mist  before  the  sun,  and  the  luckless  Janissaries  who 
were  still  in  the  trenches,  forgotten  by  their  flying 
leaders,  were  massacred  to  a  man.  Over  three 
hundred  pieces  of  artillery  fell  into  the  victors'  hands, 
besides  nine  thousand  ammunition  waggons,  a  hundred 
thousand  oxen,  twenty-five  thousand  tents,  and  a 
million  pounds  of  gunpowder.  The  unlucky  Vezlr 
paid  for  his  error  with  his  head.  Like  the  Cartha- 
ginians, the  Turks  showed  scant  mercy  to  defeated 
generals. 

^  Schimmer,  "Two  Sieges  of  Vienna"  (Eng.  trans.),  136-138. 


THE   SULTAN^S   HUNTS,  237 

Thus  was  Vienna  for  a  second  time  delivered  out 
of  the  hands  of  the  Ottomans ;  and  never  again 
would  the  horsetails  be  seen  from  the  steeple  of  St. 
Stephen's  church  ;  where  the  preacher  triumphantly- 
commented  on  the  text,  "  There  was  a  man  sent  from 
God,  whose  name  was  John."  It  is,  perhaps,  useless 
to  speculate  on  the  probable  consequences  of  the 
contrary  event.  Had  Vienna  been  taken,  as  it  almost 
was,  by  the  Turks,  the  course  of  European  history 
might  possibly  have  been  changed  ;  but  it  may  be 
questioned  whether  the  Turks  retained  enough  of 
their  pristine  vigour  to  hold  such  a  conquest  in  the 
face  of  such  powerful  and  brilliant  leaders  as  the 
states  of  Europe  could  then  and  afterwards  bring 
against  it.  Two  centuries  earlier  it  might  have  been 
otherwise :  Mohammed  II.  might  have  held  Vienna 
against  the  world.  But  Mohammed  had  slept  the 
last  sleep  for  two  hundred  years,  and  no  one  now  sat 
in  his  seat  at  Constantinople  who  was  worthy  to  wear 
his  armour  or  wield  his  sword.  .  At  the  end  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  the  Turks  possessed  no  Sultan 
or  general  who  could  withstand  such  men  as  Monte- 
cuculi,  Charles  of  Lorraine,  Prince  Eugene,  or  Marl- 
borough. 

The  Sultan,  who  had  been  upon  the  throne  for  thirty- 
five  eventful  years,  was  no  sluggard,  indeed  ;  but  his 
energies  were  wholly  absorbed  in  the  chase.  "  The  long 
reign  of  Mohammed  IV.  (1648-87)  was  the  intermediate 
epoch  between  the  triumphs  of  the  hero,  the  codes  of 
the  legislator,  and  the  pompous  nullity  of  the  caged 
puppets  of  the  seraglio  ;  and  while  the  Ottoman  stan- 
dard was  planting  on  *  Troy's  rival  Candia,'  the  now 


238  THE   RULE   OF   THE    VEZIRS. 

unwarlike,  but  still  spirited,  Lord  of  Constantinople, 
and  successor  of  the  Orkhans,  Mohammeds,  Sellms, 
Murads,  and  Suleymans,  was  chasing  the  wild  deer  of 
Pelion  and  Olympus,  and  displaying  his  sylvan  pomp 
at  Larissa  and  Tirnova.  To  the  remote  scene  of  the 
Sultan's  recreations.  Pashas,  Generals,  Vezlrs,  and 
Embassies,  were  seen  hastening  ;  and  the  splendour 
of  the  seraglio,  with  its  ceremonial,  was  transferred  to 
mountain  wastes  and  deserts  ;  amid  untrodden  forests 
arose  halls  of  Western  tapestry,  and  of  Indian  texture, 
rivalling  in  grandeur,  and  surpassing  in  richness,  the 
regal  palaces  of  the  Bosphorus.  Brusa,  the  Asiatic 
Olympus,  the  field  of  Troy,  the  sides  of  Ida,  the  banks 
of  the  Maeander,  the  plains  of  Sardis,  were  the 
favourite  resorts  of  this  equal  lover  of  the  chase  and 
of  nature.  But  the  places  more  particularly  honoured 
by  his  preference  were  Jamboli,  in  the  Balkan,  about 
fifty  miles  to  the  north  of  Adrianople,  and  Tirnova. 
Whenever  he  arrived  or  departed  the  inhabitants  of 
fifteen  districts  turned  out  to  assist  him  in  his  sport  ; 
these  festivities  were  rendered  attractive  to  the  people 
by  exhibitions  and  processions,  somewhat  in  the  spirit 
of  ancient  Greece,  as  well  as  in  that  of  Tartary,  where 
all  the  esnafs  or  trades  displayed  in  procession  the 
wonders  of  their  art,  or  the  symbols  of  their  calling, 
and  in  which  exhibitions  of  rare  objects  and  grotesque 
figures  were  combined  with  theatric  pantomime." 
*"  But  at  home  this  sporting  Sultan  was  less  amiable, 
or  his  ministers  perhaps  took  too  much  upon  them- 
selves :  for  it  was  in  his  reign  that  a  French  Ambas- 
sador was  called  a  Jew  by  the  Grand  VezTr,  struck  in 
the  face,  and  beaten   with  a  stool  ;  that  a  Russian 


TREATMENT  OF  AMBASSADORS.  239 

envoy  was  actually  kicked  out  of  the  presence  cham- 
ber;  and  the  Imperial  dragoman  repeatedly  bastina- 
doed. The  Ottoman  ministers  refused  to  rise  on 
receiving  a  foreign  representative  ;  yet  the  ambassa- 
dors were  regarded  as  guests  at  the  Porte,  and  were 
allowed  so  much  a  day  for  their  keep.  It  was  only  in 
the  present  century  that  this  contemptuous  bearing 
towards  Giaours  was  amended  ;  and  as  the  Grand 
Vezir  persisted  in  remaining  seated  when  an  Ambas- 
sador came  for  audience,  a  compromise  was  arranged, 
whereby  the  minister  and  the  envoy  entered  the 
chamber  simultaneously,  by  opposite  doors,  so  that 
neither  had  the  opportunity  to  seat  himself.^ 

Defeated  at  Vienna,  the  Turks  did  not  retire  from 
Hungary  without  striking  a  blow  at  the  over-confident 
King  of  Poland,  who  in  his  hot  pursuit  forgot  the 
ancient  valour  of  his  foes  and  received  a  severe  lesson 
at  Parkany.  But  this  check  only  made  the  Imperialists 
more  careful,  and  the  Ottomans  found  themselves 
driven  step  by  step  from  their  northern  possessions. 
City  after  city  was  retaken  by  the  enemy  ;  a  defeat  at 
Mohacs,  once  a  name  of  glory  to  the  Turks,  still 
further  discouraged  them  ;  Buda  was  retaken  after  145 
years  of  vassalage  (1686) ;  the  Austrians  poured  through 
Hungary  and  took  Belgrade  (1688)  ;  Louis  of  Baden 
entered  Bosnia  ;  the  Venetians  invaded  Dalmatia,  and 
their  future  Doge,  the  former  defender  of  CandiayMoro- 
sini,  subdued  the  Peloponnesus.  The  great  Athenian 
temple,  the  Parthenon,  after  having  served  the  By- 
zantines as  a  church  and  the  Turks  as  a  powder  maga- 
zine, was  finally  shattered  to  ruins  by  the  Venetians  in 
»  Urquhart,  "  Spirit  of  the  East,"  i.  341-345  (ed.  1838). 


240  THE   RULE   OF   THE    VEZIRS. 

this  campaign.  The  Russians  and  Poles  alone  had 
been  kept  at  arm's  length  on  the  north-east  frontier. 
The  Turkish  dominions  in  Europe  were  now  reduced 
to  half  their  former  extent. 

Again    the    Sultan    had  recourse   to   the   famous 

iamily  that  had  already  served  his  empire  so  well. 
Coprili-zada  Mustafa,  a  brother  of  the  more  cele- 
)rated  Ahmed/  was  made  Grand  VezTr  in  i6<S9.  He 
aw  the  first  necessity  of  conciliating  the  Christian 
rayas,  and  this  prudent  policy  prevented  any  rising  of 
the  Greeks  and  Slavs  in  Turkey  Proper.  He  was  a 
wise  man,  a  great  reader,  and  noted  for  his  sincerity, 
insomuch,  that  when  he  could  not  say  a  civil  thing 
honestly,  he  would  hold  silence  for  an  entire  audience. 
Like  his  brother,  he  was  more  at  home  in  the  bureau 
than  the  field,  yet  he  led  his  troops  valiantly  against  the 
Austrians,  marching  on  foot  himself  like  any  common 
soldier.  He  drove  back  the  Christians  and  retook 
Belgrade  and  other  places,  and  pushed  forward  the 
Turkish  frontier  up  to  the  Save.  In  the  battle  of 
Slankamen  (1691),  however,  he  was  killed,  and  his 
army  was  put  to  the  rout.  Two  other  members  of  his 
family  afterwards  succeeded  to  the  chief  office,  but 
neither  of  them  attained  the  fame  of  Mohammed, 
Ahmed,  or  Mustafa.  Yet  they  served  their  country 
well  and  loyally,  and  the  fifty  years  of  the  rule  of 
this  family  served,  like  a  strong  anchor,  to  hold  the 
drifting  ship  of  State. 

A    new  Sultan,    Mustafa    H.,    in     1695    suddenly 
called  to  mind  the  great  deeds  of  his  ancestors,  and 

^  It  is  Ahmed  who  is  called  Fazil  Ahmed— Ahmed  the  Virtuous  (/zV. 
Excellent). 


BATTLE   OF  ZENTA.  24I 

inspired  by  such  memories,  boldly  led  forth  his  armies 
against  the  Austrians.  At  first  this  unexpected  re- 
vival of  the  old  traditions  of  Turkish  glory  inspired 
the  people  with  enthusiasm,  and  his  standards  were 
followed  by  a  large  and  eager  force.  But  zeal  was 
not  enough  to  secure  the  victory,  when  Prince 
Eugene  commanded  on  the  other  side,  and  of  general- 
ship the  Sultan  and  his  advisers  had  little  to  spare. 
The  Battle  of  Zenta  in  1697  was  a  decisive  blow: 
twenty  thousand  Turks  were  slain  and  ten  thou- 
sand more  were  drowned  in  their  flight.  The 
unhappy  Sultan  gave  up  his  dream  of  military 
glory. 

At  this  juncture,  England,  in  the  person  of  Lord 
Paget,  her  Ambassador  at  the  Porte,  offered  her  medi- 
ation, which  was  accepted.  The  peace  of  Carlowitz, 
a  notable  landmark  in  Turkish  history,  was  the  re- 
sult. Here  for  the  first  time  Russian  and  Turkish 
envoys  met  in  a  European  congress,  and  Turkey  ad- 
mitted once  for  all  the  principle  of  intervention  by 
disinterested  Powers.  By  this  treaty  (1699;  Austria 
kept  Transylvania  and  Hungary  north  of  the  Marosch 
and  west  of  the  Theiss,  with  most  of  Slavonia ; 
Poland  recovered  Podolia  and  Kaminiec ;  Venice 
retained  Dalmatia  and  the  Morea  or  Peloponnesus  ; 
Russia  made  an  armistice  which  afterwards  was 
changed  into  a  peace.  Seventeen  years  later,  after  a 
fresh  outbreak  of  hostilities.  Prince  Eugene  took  Bel- 
grade, and  by  the  Peace  of  Passarowitz  (17 18),  in  which 
England  again  played  the  part  of  mediator,  Austria 
obtained  possession  of  the  rest  of  Hungary,  and  the 
Turkish  frontier  on  the  north    v/as  drawn   on   very 


242  THE   RULE   OF   THE    VEZIRS, 

nearly  the  same  line  which  obtained  until  the  Treaty 
of  Berlin. 

Henceforward  the  Ottoman  Empire  ceased  to  hold 
the  position  of  a  dangerous  military  power :  its  armies 
were  never  again  a  menace  to  Christendom.  Its 
prestige  was  gone  ;  instead  of  perpetually  threatening 
its  neighbours  on  the  north,  it  had  to  exert  its  utmost 
strength  and  diplomatic  ingenuity  to  restrain  the 
aggrandising  policy  of  Austria  and  Russia.  Turkey 
was  now  to  become  important  only  from  a  diplomatic 
point  of  view.  Other  Powers  would  fight  over  her, 
and  the  business  of  the  Porte  would  be  less  to  fight 
itself,  though  she  can  still  do  it  well,  than  to  secure 
allies  whose  interests  compelled  them  to  do  battle  for 
it.  In  the  hundred  and  seventy  years  of  Turkish 
history  which  remain  to  be  recorded,  the  chief  ex- 
ternal interest  centres  in  the  aggression  of  Russia,  and 
the  efforts  of  English  diplomacy  and  English  arms  to 
restrain  her.  The  internal  changes  of  the  empire,  the 
virtual  severance  of  Egypt,  the  reforming  administra- 
tion of  Sir  Stratford  Canning,  the  Russian  wars,  and 
the  growth  of  the  Christian  states,  will  bring  the 
chronicle  up  to  the  present  date. 


XIII. 

THE    RISE    OF    RUSSIA. 
(1696-1812.) 


While  the  Ottoman  Empire  had  been  growing  for 
centuries,  there  had  been  movements  to  the  northward 
in  the  region  known  to  the  Greeks  as  Scythia  and 
Sarn^atia,  which  threatened  sooner  or  later  to  interfere 
with  its  progress.  Centuries  earlier,  in  fact  before 
Krtoghrul  had  chivalrously  interfered  in  favour  of 
the  Sultan  of  Iconium,  the  steppes  and  seaboards  of 
the  north  had  been  under  the  sway  of  rulers  whose 
kingdoms  had  passed  through  several  stages  of  de- 
velopment, until,  at  the  period  which  we  have  reached, 
they  were  approaching  union  and  strength. 

The  early  history  of  this  region  is  involved  in  the 
mystery  which  obscures  the  first  ages  of  a  country. 
In  the  Byzantine  annals  the  inhabitants  are  represented 
as  cruel  and  filthy,  terrible  in  battle,  using  the  skulls 
of  their  enemies  as  drinking-cups  ;  yet  like  the  Arabs 
hospitable  to  strangers.  Other  accounts  picture  them 
as  living  in  the  idyllic  innocence  and  happiness  de- 
scribed by  the  poets  of  Greece,  who  imagined  that  the 
people  beyond  the  north  wind  enjoyed  peaceful  lives 
that  stretched  out  to  a  thousand  years.     They  werQ 


244  ^^^   ^^^^   ^^  RUSSIA. 

represented  to  be  of  noble  presence,  bearing  instru- 
ments of  harmony  instead  of  arms,  and  not  even 
knowing  that  such  a  material  as  iron  existed  out  of 
which  swords  might  be  forged.  Travellers  seldom 
gain  correct  notions  of  strange  lands,  and  we  may 
suppose  that  early  visitors  to  the  region  that  was 
afterwards  called  Russia  took  their  impressions  from 
the  rhapsodies  of  the  bards,  in  the  one  case,  or,  in  the 
other,  came  into  conflict  with  the  strong  men  who 
wielded  the  battle-axe  to  protect  the  homes  of  wives 
and  children.  Doubtless  these  northerners  were 
neither  so  fierce  nor  so  mild  as  these  conflicting 
accounts  would  make  them. 

Through  the  steppes  and  among  the  mountain 
ranges  commerce  had  been  carried  on  from  a  very 
early  period.  The  river  Volga  furnished  the  chief 
means  of  communication  between  the  distant  east  and 
the  Baltic  region,  in  the  route  of  which,  on  Lake  Ilmen, 
connected  with  Lake  Ladoga  and  the  Gulf  of  Finland 
by  the  rivers  Volkhov  and  Neva,  there  rose  an  emporium 
called  Novgorod^hat  became  the  first  capital  of  the 
future  empire.i  It  is  easy  to  appreciate  the  impor- 
tance of  a  river  system  in  a  country  like  Russia,  and 
especially  of  such  a  river  as  the  Volga.  It  not  only 
drains  a  vast  region,  but  it  falls  little  more  than^ix 
imndrfidJeetjn  a  course  oijU\^onty  fiv^c  J;tundred  miles  ; 
but  its  length  and  VGtyr  slight  fall  are  not  the  onl; 
reasons  why  it  was  a  help  to  commerce  in  early  times 
as  it  is  to  steam  navigation  in  our  own  day.  A  glance 
at  the  map  shows  that  there  is  but  a  short  land  passage 

*  The  importance  of  this  capital  is  shown  by  the  early  Russian  pro- 
verb, "  Who  can  resist  God  and  the  great  Novgorod?" 


RURIK.  245 

from  its  head-waters  to  those  of  the  Volkhov,  as  well 
as  to  the  Dnieper,  through  which  the  trader  was  able 
to  convey  his  merchandise  in  boats  over  most  of  the 
long  distance  from  the  Caspian  to  the  Black  Sea  and 
the  Mediterranean. 

About  a  thousand  years  ago  the  inhabitants  of  this 
great  territory  were  harassed  on  the  south  by  those 
terrible  Khazars  who  a  century  before  had  crossed  the 
Caucasus  to  fall  upon  the  possessions  of  the  Moslems.^ 
At  the  same  time  certain  Northmen,  who  are  said  to 
have  belonged  to  the  race  which  afflicted  so  many 
lands  in  early  times,  attacked  the  dwellers  about  Lake 
Ilmen  and  put  them  under  tribute.  These  Northmen, 
known  as  Variags  or  Varangians,  were  of  the  family 
of  Rus,  and  their  leader  was  Rurik.  With  him  came 
his  brothers,  in  the  year  ^62,  and  brought  order  to 
the  misruled  and  divided  people. 

For  fifty  years  after  the  arrival  of  Rurik,  Novgorod 
was  the  chief  city  and  the  capital,  and  Russia  rejoiced 
in  a  heroic  age.     It  came   to  pass   in   time,  however,.  | 
that  Igor  son  of  Rurik  was  set  upon  a  throne  at  Kiev,  ; 
which  for  nearly  three  centuries  became  the  capital.  \ 
There  Christianity    was    first    planted   in    the  tenth  \ 
century,  though  tradition  asserts  that  St.  Andrew  the 
Apostle  first    set   the  Cross  up  on  its  heights.      On 
the  death  of  Igor,  Olga  his  widow  reigned  during  the 
minority   of  her  son,    and   it  was    in    her   day   that 
Christianity  began  to  spread  slowly  throughout  the 
middle  of  the  continent.     In  the  year  955  when  there 
was  peace  from   foreign  and  domestic    enemies,  this 
queen   sailed  down  the  Dnieper  and  over  the  Black 

*  See  Gilman,  "The  Story  of  the  Saracens,"  345,  346. 


246  THE   RISE   OF  RUSSIA. 

Sea  to  Constantinople,  and  was  there  baptized  with 
much  ceremony  under  the  supervision  of  Constantine 
Porphyrogenitus,  and  received  the  Christian  name  of 
Helen. 

Vladimir  the  Great,  her  grandson,  received  baptism 
thirty-three  years  later,  at  Kherson, close  to  the  modern 
Sevastopol.  The  legend  runs  that  when  he  was 
besieging  the  place  he  said  that  if  he  took  it  he  would 
be  baptized  in  the  holy  font  excavated  in  the  floor  of 
the  ancient  church  there,  and  he  kept  his  word.  The 
well  is  still  to  be  seen.  He  supported  the  new  faith 
with  zeal,  and  founded  churches  and  schools.  Accord- 
ing to  Gibbon,  all  who  refused  baptism  were  treated 
as  enemies  of  God  and  their  prince,  and  accordingly 
"  the  rivers  were  instantly  filled  with  many  thousands 
of  obedient  Russians  who  acquiesced  in  the  truth  and 
excellence  of  a  doctrine  which  had  been  embraced  by 
the  great  duke  and  the  boyars."  ^ 

The  descendants  of  Vladimir  did  not  dwell  in  peace, 
and  the  kingdom  became  in  time  a  group  of  prince- 
doms, which  fought  innumerable  campaigns  with  each 
other  and  with  the  barbarians.  In  the  twelfth  century 
the  titular  capital  was  the  city  of  Vladimir,  on  a  river 
between  the  Oka  and  the  Volga ;  Kiev  and  Nov- 
gorod were  among  the  most  wealthy  and  prosperous 
places  on  the  continent ;  and  the  new  city  of  Moskva, 
or  Moscow,  had  been  founded  (1147). 

For  a  century  the  confederated  princedoms  were 
at  war  among  themselves,  and  then  a  new  and  startling 
danger  arose  in  the  south-east.  The  terrible  Chingiz 
Khan  sent    a   portion  of  his   troops    to  harass   the 

*  "  The  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,"  chapters  lii.,  liv. 


INVASION   OF   TARTARS.  247 

Turkish  tribes  west  of  the  Caspian  Sea.  They  passed 
through  Georgia  and  over  the  Caucasus  range  yntil 
they  reached  the  steppes  of  Russia.  There  they 
encountered  forces  that  the  Russians  had  raised  to 
oppose  them,  and  won  a  complete  victory,  in  1224,  on 
the  banks  of  a  small  river  that  empties  itself  into  the 
Sea  of  Azov  near  the  present  town  of  Mariupol.  The 
invaders  had  crossed  the  Don,  and  made  considerable 
progress  into  the  domain  of  their  enemies. 

For  a  dozen  years  the  common  people  were  filled 
with  forebodings  of  the  return  of  the  Tartars,  and 
at  the  end  of  that  time  their  fears  were  realized. 
Batu,  grandson  of  Chingiz,  poured  his  Mongol  hordes 
upon  the  inhabitants,  slaughtered  men,  women,  and 
children,  and  burned  their  dwellings  and  cities.  .  Mos- 
cow and  Vladimir  became  heaps  of  smoking  ruins ; 
all  opposing  armies  were  crushed  by  the  tumultuous 
Asiatics.  N6vgorod  saw  the  wild  horde  approaching 
and  expected  the  fate  of  its  sister  cities,  but  for  no 
reason  that  could  be  surmised,  Batu  turned  back,  and 
swept  southward  to  the  steppes  of  the  Don.  The 
next  year  he  wasted  Southern  Russia  and  retreated  to 
a  place  of  safety.  In  1240,  he  appeared  in  front  of 
Kiev,  which,  though  already  devastated  by  civil  war, 
beckoned  him  with  its  promise  of  spoils.  Soon  the 
bright  domes  became  a  prey  to  the  flames,  the  palaces 
were  rifled  ;  the  citizens  were  butchered  or  made 
captive ;  and  smoking  walls  were  all  that  remained 
of  the  splendour  that  once  was  Kiev.  Batu  hurried 
westward,  but  was  defeated  at  Liegnitz  (1241),  in 
Moravia,  and  forced  to  flee  to  the  other  side  of  the 
Volga,  where  he  laid  the  foundation  of  the  famous 


248  THE   RISE   OF  RUSSIA. 

city  of  Seray.^  There  he  pitched  his  golden  camp, 
or  ordUy  from  which  his  followers  afterwards  received 
the  name  "Golden  Horde;"  while  the  name  of  the 
city  is  preserved  in  the  word  "  seraglio,"  a  palace. 

Russia  was  completely  cowed  by  these  invaders, 
and  for  more  than  two  hundred  years  was  in  effect  a 
Tartar  province.  The  waste  places  were,  however, 
cultivated  again,  and  the  cities  slowly  recovered  from 
their  ruined  condition ;  but  the  hand  of  the  Tartar 
was  heavy  upon  the  people,  and  ever  and  anon  the 
fearful  rumour  passed  from  mouth  to  mouth  that  the 
invaders  were  again  at  hand,  and  in  the  imagination 
of  the  terrified  folk  the  scenes  of  the  time  of  Batu 
were  repeated  in  all  their  frightful  horrors. 

The  yoke  was  not  borne  with  resignation  all  this 
long  time.  Alexander  Nevski,  the  Russian  national 
hero  and  canonized  Tsar,  raised  the  spirits  of  his 
northern  subjects  by  a  mighty  victory  over  the  Swedes 
on  the  banks  of  the  Neva  in  1240,  where  St.  Peters- 
burg now  stands.  In  1378  and  1380,  Demetrius  IV., 
appointed  grand  prince  by  the  Mongols,  brought 
against  his  masters  a  well -trained  army  and  twice 
routed  them.  In  one  conflict  on  the  Don  he  killed, 
they  say,  one  hundred  thousand  Tartars;  but,  in  1381, 
the  irrepressible  horde  returned  and  burned  Vladimir 
and  Moscow,  slaying  in  the  latter  cit}^  alone,  it  is  said, 
twenty-four  hundred  persons.  Peace  was  purchased  at 
a  heavy  sacrifice. 

*  This  city  is  mentioned  by  Chaucer  in  the  Squire's  Tale — **  the 
half-told  tale  of  Cambuscan  " — 

**  At  Sarry.  in  the  land  of  Tartarye, 
Ther  dwelte  a  kynge  that  werreyed  Russye." 


IVAN   THE   GREAT,  249 

Nevertheless  the  importance  of  Moscow  increased 
as  time  passed,  and  in  the  next  century  Ivan  III., 
the  Great,  taking  advantage  of  the  weakness  which 
followed  the  internecine  wars  which,  in  the  time  of 
Tamerlane,!  had  devastated  the  Golden  Horde,  had 
strengthened  himself  sufficiently  to  throw  off  the  yoke. 
His  reign  marks  a  new  period  in  Russian  history. 
He  united  Novgorod,  Moscow,  and  other  states,  and 
a  kingdom  of  Russia  became  for  the  first  time  a  pro- 
bability. He  married  a  princess  of  Constantinople, 
and  expressed  his  share  in  the  rights  of  blood-relation- 
ship by  placing  a  double-headed  eagle  upon  his 
escutcheon,  instead  of  St.  George  and  the  Dragon, 
which  he  had  formerly  borne. 

Under  Ivan  the  Great  laws  were  improved  and 
taxes  regulated.  The  Tartars  were  now  broken  up 
into  a  number  of  small  khanates — Krim,  stretching 
along  the  Don  ;  Kazan,  on  the  Volga ;  Astrakhan, 
on  the  Lower  Volga ;  and  others  further  east.  In 
1502  the  golden  city  of  Seray  was  taken  and 
destroyed. 

The  reign  of  Ivan  first  brought  the  Russian  Court 
into  peaceful  relations  with  the  Porte.  Certain  Turks 
had  laid  burdensome  impositions  on  the  Muscovite 
merchants  trading  among  them,  and  when,  in  1492, 
the  facts  came  to  the  knowledge  of  Ivan  the  Great, 
he  wrote  to  Bayezid  II.  and  proposed  diplomatic 
intercourse  between   the  two  empires.^     Three  years 

^  Timur  ravaged  South-enstern  Russia  in  1396,  and  threatened 
Vladimir  and  Moscow,  but  unexpectedly  retired. 

^  Diplomacy  in  the  modern  acceptation  of  the  term,  was  then  in  its 
infancy.     Though  it  is  generally  said  to  have  become  a  science  in  the 


250  THE  RISE   OF  RUSSIA. 

later  the  Tsar  sent  his  first  ambassador  to  the  Golden 
Horn. 

Though  this  was  the  first  diplomatic  connexion 
between  Ottoman  and  Russian  history,  it  was  not 
the  beginning  of  conflict  between  Russia  and  Con- 
stantinople. As  early  as  864,  a  Russian  fleet  had 
appeared  at  the  Golden  Horn,  and  had  with  some 
difficulty  been  repulsed.  In  906  the  city  was  panic- 
stricken  by  the  approach  of  land  and  water  forces 
under  Oleg,  guardian  of  Igor,  the  son  of  Rurik. 
The  inhabitants  were  plundered,  tortured,  and  put 
to  the  sword  in  great  numbers.  Again,  in  941,  Igor 
himself  went  down  with  "  thousands  "  of  galleys  and 
ravaged  the  coasts,  destroying  towns  and  crucifying 
the  inhabitants.  He  was  repulsed  by  the  wonder- 
ful "winged  fire"  which  had  discomfited  the  Sara- 
cens centuries  before.  In  972,  Svatoslav  I.  made 
another  expedition,  but  was  defeated  by  the  Em- 
peror, John  Zimiskes,  in  the  Balkan,  after  a  terrible 
struggle,  and  lost  his  life  before  he  was  able  to  re- 
gain his  capital.  Thus  early  began  the  Russians  to 
cast  longing  eyes  upon  the  beautiful  city  on  the 
Bosphorus. 

Moscow  advanced  in  power.  It  was  blessed  with 
cautious  princes,  who  made  a  virtue  of  necessity  by 
bowing  to  the  Tartars  when  they  were  too  strong  to 
be  resisted,  but  were  ever  ready  to  strike  in  earnest 
when    they  had  a   chance.      They  contrived    at   the 

reign  of  Henry  IV.  of  France,  under  the  head  of  his  great  minister 
the  Duke  of  Sully,  it  had  been  much  cultivated  by  the  Italian 
republics,  and  Machiavelli  {1467-1527)  was  ambassador  to  France  as 
early  as  1500. 


IVAN    THE    TERRIBLE.  25 1 

same  time  to  win  the  favour  of  the  Greek  Church, 
and  they  had  the  support  of  the  boyars  or  nobility. 
The  refractory  Lithuanians  were  gradually  subdued, 
and  though  not  yet  Tsars,  in  the  modern  meaning, 
the  descendants  of  Rurik  the  Norseman  were  styled 
"Grand  Princes  of  All  Russia."  In  1552  the  Tartars 
of  Kazan  were  conquered  and  made  tributary,  and 
a  realm  comprising  some  thirty-seven  thousand 
square  miles  acknowledged  the  sway  of  Ivan  IV., 
Grozni,  "the  Terrible."  He  in  turn,  despite  his  cruel 
nature,  increased  his  patrimony  to  more  than  a 
hundred  and  forty  thousand  square  miles,  and  during 
the  half-century  of  his  reign  accomplished  more  for 
Russia  than  any  previous  sovereign. 

The  Krim  Tartars  were  fierce  foes  of  this  first  Tsar  ^ 
of  Russia.  They  were  tributary  to  the  Sultan,  but  he 
did  not  take  part  in  their  strife  with  the  Tsar.  The 
Turkish  Vezir  Sokolli  was  at  that  time  anxious  to 
revive  an  enterprize  often  conceived  and  even  at- 
tempted in  ancient  times.  This  was  the  creation  of 
a  water-route  from  Constantinople  to  the  borders  of 
Persia,  in  the  interests  alike  of  commerce  and  of  war. 
It  was  to  be  accomplished  by  cutting  a  canal  between 
the  Don  and  the  Volga  ;  ships  could  then  sail  from 
the  Black  Sea,  through  the  Sea  of  Azov,  up  the  Don 
and  down  the  Volga,  to  the  Caspian.  Astrakhan^at 
the  mouth  of  the  Volga,  then  held  by  Russia,  was  an 
essential  part  of  the  plan.  A  large  force  was  sent  out 
to  take  it,  but  it  was  routed  and  obliged  to  return  ; 
and  an  army  of  Tartars  which  went  to  its  assistance, 
was  also  defeated  by  the  Russians.     The  Tsar  sent 

^  Or  Czar :  a  contraction  of  Caesar. 


252  THE   RISE   OF  RUSSIA. 

an  ambassador  to  Constantinople  to  complain  of  the 
attack  on  Astrakhan,  and  a  friendly  alliance  was 
arranged.  Russia  was  not  yet  strong  enough  to 
display  open  resentment.  In  I57i,ayear  after  this 
alliance,  the  Krim  Tartars  sent  an  expedition  against 
Moscow.  The  city  was  taken  by  storm  and  sacked  ; 
thousands  of  the  inhabitants  perished  in  the  flames. 
The  Tsar,  who  had  in  the  previous  year  been  tormenting 
his  subjects  in  the  most  fearful  manner  on  suspicion 
of  treason,  fled  ingloriously  from  his  capital,  and 
found  an  asylum  among  his  long-suffering  people 
elsewhere. 

As  the  reign  of  the  terrible  Ivan  wore  slowly  to  its 
close  there  was  ostensibly  peace  between  the  Tsar 
and  the  Grand  Signior,  and  after  his  death  came  a 
period  of  anarchy  and  rival  claims  which  prevented 
any  attempt  at  foreign  aggrandisement.  After  the 
House  of  Romanov,  however,  had  become  fairly 
established  on  the  throne,  the  natural  and  constant 
jealousies  between  the  two  peoples  increased,  and 
actual  conflict  became  imminent.  The  Tartars  were  I 
a  perpetual  thorn  in  the  side  of  Russia,  and  the  1 
Cossacks  were  scarcely  less  irritating  to  Turkey.  \ 
There  were  frequent  petty  wars  in  the  latter  part  of 
the  seventeenth  century.  In  1696  Peter  the  Great 
took  Azov  and  gained  a  footing  on  the  shores  of  the 
Black  Sea  ;  but  the  Peace  of  Cailowitz  had  dis- 
couraged the  Turks  too  much  for  resistance,  and  in 
1700  a  treaty  of  peace  was  concluded  for  thirty  years. 
Meanwhile  the  Tsar  went  on  fortifying  Azov,  and  the 
Turks  met  his  preparations  by  building  the  fortress 
of  Yenikale.      The   struggle   with    Charles   XI L    of 


PETER    THE   GREAT.  253 

Sweden  diverted  Peter  from  his  designs  upon  Tur- 
key,  and    when    the   former   took   refuge    with    the 
Sultan  after  the  defeat  at  Pultowa,  Ahmed  III.  had 
the  courage  to  refuse  to  deh'ver  him  up  to  the  Tsar. 
War  broke   out   between    Russia   and  the    Porte   in 
1 7 10,  in  spite  of  the  thirty  years'  treaty,  and  Peter, 
the  Great    found  himself   surrounded  by  a  superior ! 
force  of  Ottomans  beside  the  river  Pruth.    The  Grand  \ 
Vezir    had    the    founder   of    Russian    greatness    in^ 
his   power  ;  but   the  quick  wit  and  heavy   bribes  of 
Catherine  extricated  her  consort  and    saved  Russia. 
Treaties  of  peace  were  common  transactions  between 
the  two  Powers  ;  one  followed  in   1 7 1 1 ,  and  another, 
sworn  for  all  eternity,  in    1720.     The  Tsar  and  the 
Sultan  joined  together  in  a  scheme  for  the  partition 
of  Persia,  and  eventually  effected    an    advantageous 
peace  with  the  Shah. 

It  was  but  few  years  after  this  that  the  belief  gained 
ground  in  many  parts  of  Europe  that  the  Ottoman 
Empire  was  tottering  to  its  fall,  a  belief  that  has 
strengthened  with  time.  In  our  own  century  it  found 
its  expression  in  the  historic  words  of  the  emperor 
Nicholas  (in  1844)  when,  referring  to  the  decline  of 
the  Ottomans,  he  said  to  Sir  Hamilton  Seymour,  "  We 
have  on  our  hands  a  sick  man,  a  very  sick  man."  It 
was  at  that  date  generally  thought  that  the  Turks 
might  be  speedily  driven  from  Europe  and  their 
possessions  divided  afnong  the  Christian  nations. 

The  humiliation  of  Peter  the  Great  on  the  banks 
of  the  Pruth  was  not  forgotten.  Resentment  for  this 
disgrace  was  nursed  by  the  sovereigns  and  the  people 
ever   after.     Peter  II.    massed    materials  of  war   at 


234  ^^^   ^^SE   OF  RUSSIA. 

convenient  places,  and  was  just  ready  for  a  campaiorn 
when  his  death  occurred  in  1727.  The  enterprise 
was  hindered  by  circumstances  until  1736,  when  the 
Tsaritza  Anne  thought  that  the  moment  for  revenge 
had  arrived,  and  in  March  of  that  year  put  her  troops 
in  motion.  In  1739  the  Peace  of  Belgrade  temporarily 
closed  a  struggle  that  had  been  carried  on  with  fre- 
quent attempts  at  peace  ;  but  it  did  not  afford  the 
expected  gratification  of  revenge.  The  terms  were 
much  too  honourable  to  the  Ottomans  to  satisfy 
Russia. 

It  was  twenty-nine  years,  however,  before  the  con- 
flict was  renewed.  In  1768  indignation  arose  at 
Constantinople  against  Russia  on  account  of  the 
occupation  of  Poland  by  her  troops,  and  the  fraudu- 
lent election  of  Poniatovski,  the  favourite  of  Queen 
Catherine  II.,  as  king,  events  that  resulted  in  the 
*'  dismemberment  "  of  that  unhappy  state.  War  was 
entered  upon  by  the  Sultan  before  he  was  prepared. 
It  was  pursued  with  very  indifferent  generalship 
on  both  sides,  except  when  Rumiantzov  led  the 
Russians,  till  1774,  and  its  two  most  interesting 
features  were  the  appearance  of  a  Russian  fleet, 
largely  officered  by  Englishmen,  upon  the  coasts  of 
Greece,  and  the  able  defence  of  Silistria  in  1773  by 
the  Turks.  It  was  closed  by  the  treaty  of  Kaynarji, 
dated  July  21st,  by  design  of  the  Russians,  since  that 
was  the  date  also  of  the  disgrace  of  the  Pruth  which 
it  was  hoped  to  obliterate.  By  this  treaty  Russia 
gained  many  advantages.  The  Crimean  khanate 
and  the  Danubian  principalities  were  made  practically 
independent,    and     while    resigning     her    conquests 


CATHERINE   THE   GREAT.  255 

Russia  retained  the  strong  fortresses  on  the  Euxine  and 
Sea  of  Azov.  The  treaty  of  Kaynarji  was  a  definite 
step  towards  that  dissolution  of  the  Turkish  Empire 
which  has  long  been  the  dream  of  the  Slavs.  One 
of  the  empress's  grandchildren  was  named  Constan- 
tine,  and  a  gate  at  Moscow  was  designated  "  The 
Way  to  Constantinople,"  as  expressive  of  her  faith 
in  Russian  destiny. 

The  subsequent  progress  of  the  international 
struggle  is  marked  by  the  treaties  of  J  assy,  Bucharest, 
Akkerman,  and  Adrianople.  The  Tartars  of  the 
Crimea  had  by  the  treaty  of  Kaynarji  been  declared 
an  independent  nation  with  the  internal  affairs  of 
which  Russia  had  bound  herself  not  to  interfere.  In 
spite  of  this  agreement,  however,  the  empress  had 
laid  her  plans  to  take  possession  of  the  Crimea,  even 
before  signing  the  treaty  in  which  she  so  solemnly 
declared  that  she  would  do  nothing  of  the  kind.  Ini 
1783,  the  region  was  accordingly  annexed  to  he^ 
dominions,  and  Constantinople  was  again  agitated. 
England,  however,  was  then  dominated  with  the  idea 
of  a  great  northern  league  against  France,  and  would 
not  oppose  Russia ;  deprived  of  allies,  the  Sultan 
was  obliged  to  acquiesce  in  the  new  state  of  affairs. 

In  1787,  the  empress  Catherine  visited  her  new 
dominions  in  company  with  the  emperor  Joseph  of 
Austria,  and  set  up  a  pompous  inscription  on  a  gate 
of  the  city  of  Kherson,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Dnieper, 
to   the   efi^ect   that   it    opened    towards    Byzantium.' 

'  For  an  account  of  this  visit  see  "  Lettres  du  prince  de  Ligne  a  la 
marquise  de  Coigny,  pendant  I'annee  1787,  publiees  avec  un  preface 
par  M.  de  Lescure,"  pp.  xxi.  69.  Paris,  Librairiedes  Bibliophiles,  i886. 


256  THE   RISE   OF  RUSSIA. 

Then  the  Ottomans  could  restrain  themselves  no 
longer,  but,  though  again  unprepared,  declared  war. 
In  December,  1788,  occurred  the  siege  of  Ochakov,  a 
strongly  garrisoned  place  which  was  expected  to  hold 
the  northerners  back  from  Moldavia  and  Wallachia. 
The  Russian  soldiery,  after  an  exhibition  of  Turkish 
butchery  in  a  neighbouring  village,  were  incited  to 
the  deepest  desire  for  vengeance,  and  pressed  forvvard 
against  all  odds  until  the  garrison  was  overcome. 
Then  they  gave  free  reign  to  their  appetite  for  pillage 
and  murder,  and  for  three  days  the  slaughter  was  merci- 
less. Only  some  three  hundred  persons,  chiefly  women 
and  children,  were  left  alive  out  of  forty  thousand. 

The  following  year,  Suvorov,  the  Russian  general 
to  whom  the  success  at  Ochakov  was  due,  was  directed 
to  advance  upon  the  still  stronger  fortress  of  Ismail 
on  the  delta  of  the  Danube,  some  forty  miles  from  the 
Black  Sea.  The  place  was  taken  by  a  night  assault  ; 
but  upon  entering  it  the  Russians  found  that  the 
severest  fighting  was  yet  before  them,  and  the  struggle 
was  continued  in  the  streets.  Throughout  all  the 
following  day  butchery  raged  without  mercy.  For 
three  days  after  they  were  overcome,  the  inhabitants 
were  given  up  to  the  brutality  of  their  conquerors,  and 
thousands  were  slain. 

War  closed  with  the  pacification  of  Jassy,  in  January, 
1792,  a  treaty  being  solemnly  signed  as  usual  "  In  the 
name  of  the  Almighty."  In  this  document  a  sincere 
desire  was  expressed  on  the  part  of  the  empress  and 
the  Sultan  to  reestablish  peace,  friendship,  and  good 
understanding,  which  had  been  interrupted  by  "trifling 
considerations,"  and  to  make  it  enduring. 


TILSIT. 


257 


In  the  treaty  of  Kaynarji  (1774)  the  Russians 
had  managed  to  insert  an  article  intended  to  make 
Turkey  acknowledge  them  as  exercising  in  some  sort 
the  office  of  protectors  of  the  Christian  subjects  of 
the  Porte.  In  the  treaty  of  Yassy  (1791)  an  article 
was  inserted  bearing  in  the  same  direction,  for  Cathe- 
rine, like  Peter  the  Great,  saw  the  advantages  that 
would  accrue  to  Russia  if  she  could  fix  her  power  in 
that  quarter.  She  did  not,  of  course,  honestly  feel 
the  sentiments  that  she  expressed  through  her  repre- 
sentatives at  Yassy,  but  went  on  with  preparations 
for  the  most  formidable  campaign  that  had  ever  been 
planned  against  the  Ottoman  Empire.  Death  happily 
interrupted  her  schemes  in  November  1796. 

The  plans  of  Russia  were,  however,  simply  inter- 
rupted, they  were'  to  be  resumed  again  at  the  first 
opportunity,  and  accordingly  in  1806,  we  find  her 
armies  at  Yassy,  and  marching  into  Moldavia  and 
Wallachia  without  a  declaration  of  war.  Again  there 
was  consternation  and  indignation  at  Constantinople. 
War  measures  were  adopted,  but  they  effected  nothing 
decisive.  Meantime  a  peace  was  determined  at  Tilsit 
in  June,  1807,  between  the  Tsar  and  the  Emperor  of 
the  French,  who  theatrically  embraced  on  a  raft  in  the 
middle  of  the  river  Niemen,  swore  eternal  friendship, 
and  agreed  that  the  Ottoman  Empire  should  be  at  the 
mercy  of  Russia.^  Such  was  the  secret  understanding  : 
the  public  treaty  however  professed  to  provide  for  the 
evacuation  by  Russia  of  the  Danubian  principalities, 
and  the  Tsar  made  some  show  of  preparing  to  retreat. 

^  The  "  eternal  "  friendship  between  Alexander  and  Napoleon  lasted 
five  years. 


258         *  THE   RISE   OF   RUSSIA. 

Austria  meanwhile  was  engaged  in  the  disastrous  war 
with  Buonaparte  which  ended  in  the  battle  of  Wagram 
and  the  Peace  of  Schonbrunn  ;  and,  relieved  from  any 
fear  of  Austrian  interference,  the  Tsar  resolved  on 
more  active  measures  against  Turkey. 

A  new  and  important  influence  had  however  arisen 
at  Constantinople.  England  had  been  formally  at 
war  with  the  Porte  in  consequence  of  our  alliance 
with  Russia.  When  the  Tsar  embraced  Napoleon  at 
Tilsit  this  purely  diplomatic  rupture  was  no  longer 
necessary,  and  Sir  Robert  Adair  negotiated  the  Peace 
of  the  Dardanelles  in  1809.  In  the  following  year  he 
left  the  Embassy,  and  Stratford  Canning,  then  a  young 
man  of  23,  became  Minister  Plenipotentiary.  In  spite 
of  his  youth  and  inexperience,  and  notwithstanding  a 
complete  want  of  instructions  from  England  during 
the  entire  period  of  his  mission,  Canning  set  himself 
to  defeat  the  intrigues  of  the  French,  and  succeeded. 
Napoleon's  object  was  to  weaken  Russia,  upon  whom 
he  was  already  meditating  his  attack,  by  prolonging 
the  war  with  Turkey,  which  had  been  continued  in  a 
desultory  manner  for  several  years,  without  any  con- 
spicuous advantage  to  either  belligerent.  He  bribed 
\  Austria  by  a  promise  of  a  partition  of  Turkey,  just  as 
he  had  bribed  Russia  at  Tilsit.  He  threatened  the 
Turks  with  his  high  displeasure,  the  displeasure  of  the 
one  overwhelming  sovereign  of  Europe,  if  they  listened 
to  the  voice  of  England — the  voice  of  the  one  resolute 
champion  of  liberty  against  universal  despotism.  He 
promised  the  Porte  his  favour  and  protection  if  it  would 
prolong  the  war.  Everything  seemed  in  his  favour, 
and  it  appeared  inconceivable  that  the  Porte  would 
^:hrow  over  so  powerful  a  patron. 


STRATFORD   CANNING,  *        259 

In  face  of  these  tremendous  odds,  Canning  used 
his  diplomatic  genius.  It  was  all  he  had,  for 
military  or  naval  support  was  denied  him.  Yet  by 
mere  reasoning,  by  exposing  the  treachery  of  Napo- 
leon, by  revealing  his  successive  schemes  of  partition, 
by  working  upon  the  fears  and  prejudices  of  the 
Turkish  ministers  with  that  consummate  skill  which 
in  after  years  gained  him  the  title  of  "the  Great 
Elchi,"  he  prevailed.  He  induced  the  Porte  to  make 
peace  with  Russia,  even  at  the  sacrifice  of  territory. 
A  new  frontier  was  drawn  at  the  river  Pruth  by  the 
Treaty  of  Bucharest,  signed  in  May,  18 12. 

This  treaty  was  wholly  due  to  the  indefatigable 
efforts  of  the  British  Minister,  and  Canning  had  been 
actuated  not  alone  by  the  desire  to  spare  the  Porte  the 
defeat  which  must  eventually  have  come  upon  it,  but 
by  other  reasons  of  high  European  policy.  The  one 
chance  of  overcoming  the  domineering  power  of 
France  was  to  enable  Russia  to  withstand  her.  There- 
fore he  worked  day  and  night  to  release  the  Russian 
army  frpm  its  duties  in  Turkey,  and  he  succeeded  just 
in  time.  Scarcely  was  the  treaty  of  Bucharest  signed 
when  Napoleon  began  his  fatal  march  to  Moscow,  and 
the  action  of  Chichakov's  army  of  the  Danube  upon 
his  flank  was  the  coup  de  grace  of  the  disastrous  retreat. 
English  diplomacy  finished  the  work  of  a  Russian 
winter. 


XIV. 

STAMBOL. 

Constantinople  stands  on  the  finest  site  in 
Europe.  St.  Petersburg  with  its  noble  river,  Stock- 
holm on  its  many  islands,  Venice  the  bride  of  the 
sea,  cannot  rival  the  ancient  city  of  the  Eastern 
Caesars.  To  see  Rome  and  die  is  mere  gratuitous 
suicide  when  the  other  Rome,  the  beautiful  city  of 
Constantine,  remains  to  be  visited.  There  is  hardly  a 
scene  in  the  world  so  replete  with  natural  beauty,  so 
rich  in  storied  recollections,  as  that  enclosed  betwixt 
the  Bosphorus  and 

**  the  dark  blue  water 
That  swiftly  glides  and  gently  swells 
Between  the  winding  Dardanelles." 

We  have  left  the  Plain  of  Troy  behind,  and  can 
almost  fancy  that  we  saw  the  mound  of  Patroclus  ; 
there  beyond  is  "  many-fountained  Ida,"  and  opposite 
stands  the  rocky  island  of  Tenedos,  where  the  Danai 
moored  their  fleet  during  the  ten  weary  years  of  the 
siege.  We  are  entering  the  Hellespont,  where  the 
Theban  maid  fell  from  the  golden  ram,  and  perished 
in  the  strait  that  bears  her  name.     High  on  the  right, 


THE   SEVEN   TOWERS.  261 

ever  veiled  with  clouds,  rises  Bithynian  Olympus, 
beneath  which,  we  know,  cluster  the  green  groves  and 
exquisite  mosques  of  Brusa,  the  old  Turkish  capital, 
invisible  from  the  sea.  We  are  in  the  enchanted  land 
of  Byron  when  we  look  upon  Abydos,  and  think  of 
the  fatal  night, — 

**  on  Helle's  wave, 
When  Love,  who  sent,  forgot  to  save 
The  young,  the  beautiful,  the  brave  ;  " 

and  then  suddenly  we  are  carried  back  to  the  stormy 
days  of  early  Christian  history,  when  an  inlet  in  the 
southern  shore  of  the  Propontis  indicates  the  direction 
of  Nicaea,  and  the  ruined  site  of  Chalcedon  comes  into 
view.  But  the  islands  that  fringe  the  coast  take  us 
once  more  to  a  new  region  of  association,  not  ancient 
history,  nor  yet  romance,  but  modern  politics  ;  for 
these  are  the  Prince's  Isles,  where  the  British  fleet  lay 
during  the  critical  weeks  when  the  death  warrant  of 
Turkey  was  being  drawn  up  at  St.  Stefano  exactly 
opposite. 

As  the  eye  passes  St.  Stefano  an  imposing  block  of 
grey  walls  and  feudal-looking  battlements  comes  into 
the  vision.  This  is  the  Castle  of  the  Seven  Towers, 
where  it  was  the  usual  custom  of  the  Porte  to  incar- 
cerate the  minister  of  a  foreign  power  upon  declara- 
tion of  war.  These  grey  walls,  in  triple  ranks,  are 
part  of  old  Byzantium  ;  there  are  stones  here  that 
were  laid  in  the  time  of  Constantine,  and  renewed  by 
Theodosius.  They  enclose  the  whole  city  in  a  circuit 
of  twelve  miles,  and  once  they  were  nearly  impreg- 
nable.     Now  they  are  overgrown  with   shrubs  and 


262  STAMBOL. 

creepers ;  the  towers  are  torn  with  gaping  rents,  the 
breaches  of  many  sieges  are  discernible  in  the  crumb- 
Hng  ruins,  and  the  scene  is  one  of  melancholy  decay 
and  desolation. 

The  old  walls  run  out  to  a  point,  and  then  wind 
round  to  the  north,  bounding  the  harbour.  The  Point 
is  crowned  by  a  group  of  irregular  ruinous  buildings, 
and  a  few  better  preserved  kiosques,  which  are  all 
that  remain  of  the  Seraglio  of  the  Grand  Signior. 
Over  them  rise  the  bulbous  dome  and  cupolas  of  St. 
Sophia,  with  its  Turkish  minarets,  and  beyond  are 
other  domes  and  minarets  innumerable.  Rounding 
Seraglio  Point,  the  vessel  glides  into  the  Golden  Horn 
— the  wide  inlet  which  forms  the  splendid  harbour  of 
Constantinople,  and  divides  the  city  into  its  European 
and  its  Turkish  quarters.  On  the  left  or  west  side  is 
Istambol,or  Stambol,  the  ancient  Byzantium,  which  is 
now  entirely  inhabited  by  Mohammedans,  as  might  be 
guessed  from  the  long  line  of  mosques  that  fringes  the 
Seven  Hills,  from  St.  Sophia  hard  by  the  Seraglio  to  the 
shrine  of  the  conqueror  Mohammed  II.  at  the  northern 
extremity,  near  the  picturesque  village  of  EyyQb  ;  and 
also  from  the  dilapidated  and  irregul-ar  style  of  the  soft- 
toned  houses  that  crowd  the  slopes  below  and  around 
the  mosques.  On  the  right  of  the  Golden  Horn  is 
the  European  quarter,  known  as  Galata  near  the 
water's  edge,  and  as  Pera  on  the  top  of  the  steep  hill 
where  the  European  colony  has  its  houses  and  the 
Embassies  their  town  palaces.  Galata  is  the  mer- 
cantile and  shipping  quarter ;  Pera  is  the  West  End 
of  Constantinople  in  all  but  the  points  of  the  com- 
pass.    It  has  not  many  good   looks  to  boast,  how- 


liH^^^^^^ 


THE  R  API  A,  265 

ever.  Its  high  street  or  "  Grande  Rue  "  is  sloped  at  the 
angle  of  a  roof,  and  in  places  is  as  narrow  as  an  alley  ; 
the  shops  are,  with  few  exceptions,  poor  and  dirty,  and 
very  few  good  houses  are  to  be  seen,  though  there  are, 
in  reality,  some  comfortable  mansions  secluded  behind 
high  walls  and  within  dusty  gardens. 

Further  to  the  east  are  the  country  houses  of  both 
Turks  andChristians,shelteredinthe  combes  that  divide 
the  swelling  downs  that  bound  the  Bosphorus  on  the 
north.  From  the  top  of  the  hill  of  Pera,  where  the 
hideous  German  Embassy  enjoys  one  of  the  finest 
views  in  the  world,  and  where  one  can  see  the  Golden 
Horn  and  the  Propontis  laid  out  like  a  beautiful  map,  a 
couple  of  miles  downhill  brings  us  to  the  little  village 
of  Ortakoy,  with  a  pretty  mosque,  and  the  best 
caiques  on  the  Bosphorus.  Entering  one  of  these 
delicious  boats,  we  round  the  slight  promontory,  and 
find  ourselves  at  Bebek,  a  lovely  village,  nestled  in 
trees  up  the  bosom  of  a  ravine,  and  forming  a  strange 
contrast  with  the  frowning  Castle  of  Europe,  which, 
just  beyond,  rears  its  round  towers  against  the  sky, 
as  it  did  when  Mohammed  II.  built  it  as  a  preliminary 
to  the  conquest  of  Constantinople.  Further  on  are 
Therapia  and  Buyukdere.  Therapia  is  the  Richmond 
of  Pera.  When  the  weather  becomes  hot,  all  who  can 
afford  a  country-house  go  to  Therapia,  where  they  can 
enjoy  the  cool  breeze  that  blows  from  the  Black  Sea. 
The  British  Embassy  looks  straight  down  the  Bos- 
phorus to  the  mouth,  where  Jason  found  the 
Wandering  Rocks  when  he  went  to  seek  for  the 
Golden  Fleece.  It  was  in  the  old  residence  here  that 
the  Great  Elchi  passed  his  summer  after  he  had  fought 


266  STAMBOL. 

his  famous  diplomatic  duel  with  Prince  Menshikov. 
"  Living  close  over  the  gates  of  the  Bosphorus,  he 
seemed  to  stand  guard  against  the  North,  and  to 
answer  for  the  safety  of  his  charge." 

The  whole  tone  of  the  country  by  night  or  by  day 
is  lovely.  As  we  see  it  we  begin  to  understand 
Byron's  enthusiasm  when  he  saw 


"  the  land  of  the  cedar  and  vine, 
Where  the  flowers  ever  blossom,  the  beams  ever  shine  ; 
Where  the  light  wings  o(  Zephyr,  oppressed  with  perfume, 
Wax  faint  in  the  gardens  of  Gul  in  her  bloom  ; 
Where  the  citron  and  olive  are  fairest  of  fruit. 
And  the  voice  of  the  nightingale  never  is  mute ; 
Where  the  tints  o  the  earth  and  the  hues  of  the  sky, 
In  colour  though  varied,  in  beauty  may  vie, 
And  the  purple  of  ocean  is  deepest  in  dye  ; 
Where  the  virgins  are  soft  as  the  roses  they  twine. 
And  all  save  the  spirit  of  man  is  divine." 


No  scene  more  perfect  can  be  conceived  than  the 
Bosphorus  by  moonlight,  with  the  red  of  the  sunset 
dying  away  into  a  pale  yellow  sheen  over  the  minarets 
of  Stambol  ;  the  hills,  clothed  with  dark  cypresses, 
stand  out  like  ramparts  on  either  hand,  ever  and  again 
cleft  with  a  deep  ravine,  where  a  few  lights  reveal  the 
presence  of  a  little  village  ;  along  the  shores  are  ranged 
the  white  palaces  of  the  Sultan  and  his  race,  many  of 
them  deserted  and  ruinous,  shining  like  pale  but  stately 
ghosts  in  the  cold  beams  of  the  climbing  moon.  Beg- 
lerbeg  and  Dolmabaghche  are  no  longer  the  homes  of 
the  Grand  Signior.  He  lives  on  the  top  of  the  hill  of 
Beshiktash,  in  his  new  mansion  of  Yildiz  Koshki,  or 
"  Star  Kiosque,"  and  the  old  palaces  are  left  to  go  to 


THE   OLD   SERAGLIO.  267 

ruin,  like  many  another  fine  old  Turkish  house  which 
overhangs  the  water,  into  which  it  must  speedily  fall, 
a  type  of  the  history  of  the  nation. 

The  Sultan,  however,  shows  judgment  in  choosing 
for  his  residence  a  height  whence  a  magnificent  view 
is  obtained,  and  where  he  is  far  removed  from  the  bad 
odours  and  dirt  of  Stambol.  The  old  Seraglio  is 
incomparably  picturesque,  but  when  one  approaches 
it  through  the  filthy  streets,  and  sees  the  squalor  and 
mud  and  ruin  that  make  up  the  Turkish  quarter,  one 
ceases  to  wonder  at  the  removal  of  the  Sultan  from 
Eski  Seray,  until  one  finds  oneself  inside  its  enchanted 
courts,  when  the  dirt  is  forgotten,  and  one  marvels 
how  any  prince  could  wish  for  a  nobler  site  wherein 
to  pass  his  days. 

Among  the  groves  of  plane  and  cypress  that  clothe 
the  apex  of  the  triangle  on  which  the  ancient  city  of 
Constantinople  is  built,  the  domes  and  minarets  of 
the  Seraglio  ^  stand  forth  conspicuously  still.  Here 
in  the  days  of  their  glory  dwelt  the  Othmanli  Sultans, 
surrounded  by  all  the  luxury  and  magnificence  that 
Oriental  imagination  could  devise.  This  beautiful 
palace-city,  with  its  marble  and  gilded  kiosques,  its 
gardens,  flowers,  and  fountains,  must  have  recalled 
the  enchanted  palaces  and  fairy  cities  of  the 
Thousand  and  One  Nights.  But  admiration  must 
have  been  touched  with  horror,  for  many  a  gloomy 
oubliette  and  grim-looking  pile  awakened  thoughts  of 

^  Europeans  frequently  use  the  word  Seraglio  as  a  synonym  for 
harem,  i.e.,  that  portion  of  a  dwelling  set  apart  for  the  use  of  the 
women  of  the  household.  It  really  means  the  entire  imperial  residence, 
being  a  corruption  of  the  Eastern  seray,  or  palace. 


268  STAMBOL. 

the  hideous  tragedies  that  were  from  time  to  time 
enacted  within  those  walls ;  and  in  the  end  the 
ghastly  recollections  which  these  monuments  called 
forth  proved  its  ruin.  Abd-ul-Mejid,  gentlest  of 
Sultans,  unable  to  endure  the  sight  of  a  place  so 
haunted  by  the  crimes  of  his  ancestors,  abandoned 
the  old  Seraglio  for  one  of  those  gay  and  cheerful 
mansions  which  his  father  had  erected  on  the  shores 
of  the  Bosphorus.  Since  that  time  the  old  palace  of 
the  Sultans,  deserted  by  its  imperial  masters,  has  fallen 
to  decay  ;  more  than  one  terrible  fire  has  swept  across 
the  point  on  which  it  stands,  and  now  little  remains, 
save  the  outer  courts,  of  what  was  once  the  favourite 
residence  of  some  of  the  mightiest  of  monarchs. 

In  the  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  this 
palace,  which  might  perhaps  be  more  correctly  de- 
scribed as  a  small  town,  consisted  of  a  number  of 
independent  buildings  erected  at  different  times  on 
the  gardens  situated  at  the  point  of  land  where  the 
Bosphorus  enters  the  Sea  of  Marmora.  On  all  sides 
but  one  it  was  surrounded  by  the  sea,  from  which  it 
was  protected  by  a  tower- flanked  wall  some  thirty 
feet  in  height,  while  another  similar  wall  shut  it  in 
from  the  city,  the  circuit  of  the  whole  being  nearly 
three  miles.  The  buildings  were,  for  the  most  part, 
upon  the  rising  ground  that  runs  along  towards  the 
Seraglio  Point,  while  the  gardens  stretched  down  to 
the  sea  on  either  side.  A  quay,  on  which  were 
mounted  several  large  pieces  of  artillery,  ran  along 
outside  the  whole  length  of  the  sea-wall,  which,  as 
well  as  the  city-wall,  was  pierced  with  a  number  of 
gates,  but  one  only  was  in  general  use.     This  was 


THE   SUBLIME   PORTE,  269 

the  great  gate  of  the  Seraglio,  the  Bab-i  Humayun 
or  Imperial  Gate,  that  "  Sublime  Porte,"  from  which 
the  Ottoman  Government  derives  the  name  by  which 
it  is  best  known.  Piled  up  on  one  side,  just  without 
this  gate,  were  pyramids  of  heads,  trophies  of  victory 
over  Greek  or  Serbian  rebels,  as  ghastly  as  the  skulls 
that  once  bleached  upon  London  Bridge  or  over 
Temple  Bar. 

Entering  under  the  lofty  arch,  where  fifty  Kapujis 
or  porters  stood  on  guard,  the  visitor  found  himself  in 
the  first  of  the  four  courts  of  the  Seraglio.  This 
court,  which,  like  the  others,  lay  open  to  the  sky,  was 
rather  mean  in  appearance  for  the  vestibule  of  a 
palace.  Several  buildings  stood  on  each  side  ;  the 
public  treasury,  the  orangery,  the  infirmary,  and  the 
bakery  occupying  the  right,  while  the  timber-yard,  the 
stables,  the  armoury,  the  mint,  and  several  other 
offices,  were  ranged  along  the  left.  The  armoury, 
which  still  exists,  was  an  old  Byzantine  church 
dedicated  to  St.  Irene,  but  turned  to  its  present  use 
by  the  Turks  on  their  capture  of  the  city.  In  it  are 
preserved  the  keys  of  many  cities  taken  by  the  Otto- 
mans in  the  days  of  their  prosperity.  To  enter  the 
second  court  it  was  necessary  to  traverse  a  passage  of 
about  fifteen  feet  in  length,  closed  by  a  gate  at  either 
end.  This  passage,  which  was  hung  with  old  arms, 
trophies  of  Ottoman  valour  on  many  a  hard-fought 
field,  was  one  of  those  places  to  which  terrible 
memories  clung.  Here  Vezirs  and  other  great  men 
who  had  forfeited  their  master's  favour  were  arrested, 
and  shown  the  fatal  warrant  that  contained  their 
doom  ;  and  here  they  died  by  the  bowstring. 


270  ZTAHLOL, 

The  outer  gate  of  this  passage,  which  went  by  the 
name  of  the  Orta  Kapu,  or  the  Middle  Gate,  was 
guarded  by  fifty  porters.  In  the  second  court,  which 
none  but  the  Sultan  might  enter  on  horseback,  the 
paths  alone  were  paved,  the  rest  of  the  ground  being 
laid  out  in  grass  plots  surrounded  by  rows  of  cypresses, 
and  watered  by  fountains,  while  all  round  the  court 
ran  a  low  gallery  covered  with  lead,  and  supported  by 
marble  columns,  under  which,  on  days  of  ceremony, 
the  Janissaries  were  drawn  up.  The  whole  of  the 
right  side  of  this  court  was  occupied  by  the  offices 
and  kitchens,  while  on  the  left,  among  other  buildings, 
stood  the  Record  Office,  the  Hall  of  the  Divan,  the 
Office  of  the  Grand  Eunuch,  and  the  Outer  Treasury, 
where  was  kept  the  store  of  those  robes  of  honour, 
which  the  Sultans  used  to  bestow  on  such  persons  as 
found  favour  in  their  eyes.  On  certain  days  in  every 
week  a  court  of  justice,  presided  over  by  the  Grand 
Vezir,  was  held  in  the  Hall  of  the  Divan,  which  was 
open  to  every  subject  of  the  Sultan  who  had  cause  of 
complaint  against  his  neighbour.  Here  the  dis- 
putants came  and  personally  pleaded  their  cause 
before  the  highest  tribunal  in  the  empire,  with  a  good 
chance  of  a  just  settlement  of  their  case  ;  for  the 
Vezirs  never  knew  whether  the  Sultan  himself  might 
not  be  watching  them  from  the  curtained  gallery, 
which  communicated  with  the  inner  courts  of  the 
Seraglio,  and  had  been  built  in  order  that  the  Padishah 
might  be  able  to  come  unobserved  and  see  what 
manner  of  justice  was  administered  in  his  name 
Not  far  from  the  Divan -Khana  stood  the  Hall 
of     the    Ambassadors,    where    the    Grand    Signior 


i 


THE   OLD   SERAGLIO,  273 

used  to  receive  the  representatives  of  foreign  mon- 
archs.^ 

These  two  courts,  the  first  and  second,  formed  the 
outer  portion  of  the  Seraglio,  and  were  almost  of  a 
public  character.  They  were  attended  during  the  day 
by  a  vast  number  of  officers,  guards,  and  servants, 
collectively  known  as  the  Aghayan-i  Birun,  or  Mas- 
ters of  the  Outside,  not  one  of  whom  was  permitted  to 
pass  into  the  third  court,  where  the  private  establish- 
ment of  the  Sultan  began.  This  inner  division,  which 
was  served  by  the  Aghayan-i  Enderun,  or  Masters  of 
the  Inside,  i.e.,  the  Four  Chambers  of  pages  and  the 
two  corps  of  eunuchs,  was  entered  by  a  gate  called 
the  Bab-i  Sa'adet,  or  Gate  of  Felicity.  On  passing 
through  this  doorway  an  entirely  new  scene  presented 
itself;  instead  of  the  rectangular  courts  which  formed 
the  outer  portion  of  the  palace,  there  appeared  an 
extensive  garden,  studded  with  many  buildings,  large 
and  small,  arranged  in  no  apparent  order,  but  all 
glittering  with  gold  and  marble.  Conspicuous  among 
the  kiosques  and  fountains,  some  of  which  were  of 
extreme  beauty,  stood  the  pavilion  of  the  Sultan,  the 
Seraglio  mosque  and  library,  the  immense  halls  of  the 
pages — one  for  each  of  the  Four  Chambers — the  apart- 
ments of  the  eunuchs,  a  magnificent  suite  of  baths,  and 
the  imperial  Treasury.  In  this  last  were  preserved  the 
priceless  art  treasures  of  the  Sultans,  a  dazzling  array 
of  beautiful  and  costly  objects,  gifts  of  princely  allies 
and  vassal  kings,  or  trophies  of  many  a  devastated 
land  and  plundered  capital  ;  there,  indeed, 

^  The  first  and  second  courts  of  the  Seraglio  still  exist  in  a  nearly 
complete  condition. 


274  STAMBOL, 

*'  Jewels  wept  from  bleeding  crowns, 
Spoils  of  woful  fields  and  towns." 

The  treasury  was  burnt  down  in  1574,  and  most  of 
its  precious  contents  were  destroyed.  Whatever  the 
Turks  had  preserved  of  the  treasures  of  old  Byzan- 
tium and  the  library  of  Matthias  Corvinus  doubtless 
perished  in  the  flames.  But  the  collection  which  has 
since  been  gathered  together  in  the  later  building 
gives  one  some  idea  of  what  the  Sultan's  treasure  house 
must  have  contained  in  the  days  of  Suleyman 
the  Magnificent.  Within  the  badly-lighted  and  ill- 
arranged  chambers  of  the  modern  treasury  are  such 
gems  and  precious  stuffs  as  could  not  be  believed  in 
unless  they  were  actually  seen,  as  the  author  saw  them 
in  1886.  Huge  emeralds  as  large  as  the  palm  of  one's 
hand,  garments  positively  plated  with  great  table 
diamonds,  maces  and  daggers  whose  hilts  held  gems 
as  large  as  hen's  eggs,  jewelled  aigrettes,  and  robes  of 
state  standing  up  stiff  with  gold  and  precious  stones. 
The  splendid  gems  which  glow  in  every  inch  of  the 
glass  cases  are  almost  all  uncut,  as  is  the  fashion  of  the 
East,  and  their  glittering  brilliancy  is  thus  concealed 
within  their  formless  outlines  ;  and  the  workmanship 
of  most  of  the  thrones  and  other  objects  is  rich  and 
elaborate  rather  than  tasteful.  Even  the  arms  are 
not  so  beautiful  as  might  have  been  expected,  though 
the  coat  which  Murad  IV.  wore  at  the  siege  of  Bagh- 
dad is  a  fine  piece  of  chain  armour.  Art  was  never 
a  strong  point  with  the  Turks,  except  when  they 
employed  others  to  work  for  them,  or  copied  earlier 
models  ;  but  in  magnificence,  in  solid  wealth  of  gold 
and  precious  stones,  the  Sultan's  treasury  leaves  one 


THE    TREASURE   HOUSE.  275 

in  a  condition  of  dazed  stupefaction.  Nothing  to 
compare  with  its  barbaric  splendour  exists  in  any 
other  European  capital. 

Jealously  guarded  in  another  building  lay,  and  in- 
deed still  lie,  the  sacred  relics  of  the  Prophet  Moham- 
med. These,  which  passed  into  the  possession  of  the 
Ottoman  monarchs  when  the  last  of  the  Abbasides 
made  over  to  SelTm  I.  the  office  and  dignity  of  the 
Khalifate,  consist  of  a  few  seemingly  trivial  objects, 
the  most  prominent  among  which  are  the  mantle  and 
banner  of  the  great  reformer — the  mantle  which  he 
threw  over  the  old  Arab  poet,  Ka'b  ibn  Zubeyr,  in 
token  of  his  delight  with  an  ode  which  the  latter  im- 
provised and  which  has  ever  since  been  famous  as  the 
Poem  of  the  Mantle  ; — his  banner,  that  Sanjak-i  Sherif, 
or  Holy  Oriflamme,  under  which  in  olden  days  Khalifs 
and  Sultans  used  to  lead  their  hosts  to  victory.  Near 
the  further  end  of  this  division  of  the  Seraglio,  in  a 
place  called  the  Chimshirlik,  or  Boxwood  Shrubbery, 
were  twelve  pavilions,  each  containing  several  rooms, 
and  each  surrounded  by  a  high  wall  enclosing  a  little 
garden.  This  was  the  Kafes,  or  Cage,  the  residence 
of  the  imperial  princes,  sons  of  the  Sultan.  Each 
prince,  in  his  separate  pavilion,  from  which  he  was  not 
allowed  to  come  forth  without  the  special  permission 
of  his  father,  was  attended  by  some  ten  or  twelve  fair 
girls  and  a  number  of  young  pages  ;  and  these  were 
the  only  companions  whom  he  might  see  and  converse 
with,  except  the  black  eunuchs  to  whom  his  education 
was  confided. 

Beyond  this  third  division  of  the  Seraglio, — se- 
parated from  it  by  a  massive  wall,  pierced  by  a  single 


276  STAMBOL, 

passage  which  was  closed  by  four  gates,  two  of  bronze 
and  two  of  iron,  whereat  black  eunuchs  stood  on  guard 
night  and  day — lay  the  imperial  harem',  another  large 
garden,  stretching  down  to  the  sea-wall,  and  dotted, 
like  the  former,  with  numerous  detached  buildings. 
The  harem  was  exclusively  tenanted  by  the  women  of 
the  imperial  household ;  no  man  save  the  Sultan  himself 
was  allowed  to  explore  that  paradise  of  earthly  houris  ; 
even  the  Grand  Eunuch  must  receive  his  imperial  mas- 
ter's permission  before  he  ventured  to  pass  through 
the  fourfold  gate.  In  the  middle  of  the  harem  garden 
rose  the  Sultan's  pavilion,  blazing  with  cloth  of  gold 
and  hangings  embroidered  with  precious  stones.  Each 
of  the  Kadins,  or  wives  of  the  Padishah,  (there  were 
usually  four,)  had  a  pavilion  containing  ten  or  twelve 
rooms  and  a  suite  of  attendants  of  her  own  ;  while 
the  other  women  were  provided  with  apartments  suited 
to  their  respective  positions.  There  were,  of  course, 
besides  these,  numerous  baths,  kiosques,  summer- 
houses,  and  similar  places,  where  the  ladies  of  the 
Seraglio,  who  were  forbidden  to  pass  beyond  the 
harem  bounds  except  on  certain  stated  occasions 
might  amuse  themselves  as  best  they  could. 

The  palace  officials  consisted  of  the  Aghayan 
Birun,  or  Masters  of  the  Outside,  and  the  Aghayan-i 
Enderun,  or  Masters  of  the  Inside.  The  former 
whose  duties  lay  exclusively  in  the  two  outer  courts 
and  who  might  never  pass  beyond  the  Gate  of  Felicity, 
were  divided  into  eight  classes :  the  Ulema,  or 
Doctors ;  the  Rikab  Aghalari,  or  Masters  of  the 
Stirrup ;  the  Umena,  or  Intendants  ;  the  Shikar 
Aghalari,  or  Masters  of  the    Hunt  ;  officers   subor- 


THE   sultan's   household.  277 

dinated  to  the  Grand  Eunuch,  officers  subordinated 
to  the  Kilar  Kyahyasi,  or  Comptroller  of  the  Buttery, 
the  Body-guards,  and  the  Palace  Guards. 

The  class  of  doctors  consisted  of  five  officers  :  the 
Khoja,  or  titular  Tutor  of  the  Sultan,  the  First  and 
Second  Imams  or  Chaplains,  the  Chief  Physician, 
the  Chief  Astrologer,  the  Chief  Chirurgeon,  and  the 
Chief  Oculist.  The  duty  of  the  cliaplains  was  to 
replace  the  Sultan  in  the  mosque  at  the  Bayram 
feasts,  when,  as  head  of  the  religion,  he  was  supposed 
to  lead  the  public  worship.  The  Chief  Physician, 
who  had  under  his  orders  about  eiorhteen  members 
of  his  craftj  used  to  derive  a  considerable  profit  from 
the  preparation  of  ma'jun.  This  was  a  sort  of  sweet- 
meat composed  of  essence  of  opium,  aloes-wood, 
ambergris,  and  other  aromatics,  which  he  composed 
and  sent  in  china  vases  at  the  Nev-ruz,  or  Festival 
of  the  Vernal  Equinox,  to  the  Sultan  and  the 
members  of  his  family,  to  the  Grand  Vezir  and  other 
great  men  of  the  state,  from  all  of  whom  he  received 
handsome  gifts  in  return.  The  Chief  Astrologer's 
business  was  to  consult  the  stars  as  to  the  prospects 
of  any  projected  action,  and  to  prepare  an  annual 
almanac  in  which  all  the  lucky  and  unlucky  days 
were  indicated.  The  Chief  Oculist  was  charged 
with  the  preparation  of  the  surma,  or  collyrium, 
which  the  ladies  of  the  harem  rubbed  upon  their 
eyelids. 

The  Masters  of  the  Stirrup,  so  called  because  they 
were  supposed  to  attend  the  Sultan  when  he  rode, 
comprised  five  great  officers  :  the  Lord  of  the  Banner, 
the  Chief  Gardener,  the  First  and  Second  Lords  of 


278  STAMBOL. 

the  Stable,  and  the  Comptroller  of  the  Porters. 
Besides  these  functionaries  there  was  a  corps  of 
gentlemen,  about  five  hundred  strong,  called  the 
Kapuji  Bashis,  or  Chief  Porters,  who  were  all 
reckoned  among  the  Masters  of  the  Stirrup.  None 
but  the  sons  of  Pashas  or  VezTrs  were  eligible  for 
admission  into  this  select  body,  the  members  of 
which  acted  as  chamberlains  on  state  occasions,  when 
they  wore  a  long  robe  of  cloth  of  gold  trimmed  with 
sable  and  a  curious-looking  gilt  head-dress  sur- 
mounted by  an  enormous  crest  of  white  plumes, 
shaped  somewhat  like  an  umbrella.  When  a  foreign 
ambassador  was  admitted  into  the  imperial  presence, 
it  was  by  the  Chief  Porters  that  he  was  introduced. 
One  of  their  number  stood  on  guard  every  night  at 
the  Middle  Gate,  at  the  entrance  to  the  Second 
Court  of  the  palace.  The  Lord  of  the  Banner  had 
charge  of  the  imperial  standards  and  of  the  seven  tughs, 
or  horsetails,  of  the  Sultan. ^  He  also  commanded 
the  corps  of  Chief  Porters,  and  was  superintendent 
of  the  military  music  of  the  palace. 

One  of  the  most  influential  officers  of  the  court 
was  the  Bostanji  Bashi,  or  Chief  Gardener.  This 
functionary  was  governor  of  the  Seraglio  and  over- 
seer of  all  the  Sultan's  gardens  and  summer- palaces. 
The  shores  of  the  Bosphorus  and  Sea  of  Marmora, 
from  the  entrance  to  the  Black  Sea  as  far  as  the 
Dardanelles  were  all  under  his  inspection  ;   and  no 

*  The  Tugh,  or  ensign  of  the  Turkish  tribes,  was  originally  the  tail  of 
a  yak,  but  when  the  Ottomans  left  Central  Asia,  that  of  a  horse  was 
substituted.  Governors  of  provinces  received  one,  two,  or  three  tughs. 
according  to  their  rank  ;  the  Sultan  alone  displayed  seven. 


THE   CHIEF  GARDENER,  279 

one  might  erect,  or  even  repair,  any  kind  of  building 
on  the  land  subject  to  his  jurisdiction  without  his 
permission,  which  had  to  be  paid  for.  He  was 
ranger  of  the  forests  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Con- 
stantinople, and  had  charge  of  the  royal  hunt  and 
fisheries.  Among  his  duties  was  the  steering  of  the 
imperial  barge  whenever  the  Sultan  went  on  the 
waters  over  which  he  exercised  control,  an  office 
which  afforded  him  many  opportunities  of  confidential 
communication.  He  had  moreover  to  preside  at  the 
execution  of  great  men,  when  that  took  place  within 
the  Seraglio  precincts,  and  to  superintend  the  prison 
where  suspected  officials  were  put  to  the  torture. 
D'Ohsson  tells  us  that  the  mere  mention  of  this 
dismal  place,  which  was  situated  close  to  the  Seraglio 
bakeries  and  consequently  called  the  Fur,  or  Oven, 
was  sufficient  to  inspire  terror. 

The  First  Lord  of  the  Stable  had  under  his  orders 
upwards  of  a  thousand  equerries,  six  hundred  grooms, 
a  body  of  six  thousand  Bulgarians,  known  as  Voy- 
nuks,  who  acted  as  grooms  to  the  army  in  time  of 
war,  the  Koru  Aghas,  or  rangers  of  the  parks,  and 
finally,  all  the  saddlers,  camel -drivers,  and  muleteers 
Attached  to  the  palace  service.  All  the  meadows  and 
;Kairies  belonging  to  the  Crown,  that  lay  between 
Adrianople  and  Brusa,  were  under  his  charge  ;  and 
he  was  entitled  to  grant  private  individuals,  on  pay- 
ment of  a  certain  sum,  the  right  of  turning  out  their 
horses  to  graze  on  the  same.  In  times  of  peace  the 
Voynuks  were  usually  employed  in  looking  after  the 
Sultan's  horses  out  at  grass  on  these  vast  plains. 

The  Comptroller  of  the  Porters  received  the  written 


28o  STAMBOL. 

petitions  which  were,  and  still  are,  presented  to  the 
Padishah  on  his  appearance  in  public.  On  p^ala  days 
he,  in  conjunction  with 'the  Chawush  Bashi,  or  Chief 
Herald,  an  officer  belonging  to  the  eighth  class  of  the 
Masters  of  the  Outside,  exercised  the  functions  of 
marshal  of  the  court.  When  the  Grand  Vezir  was 
summoned  to  confer  with  the  Sultan,  these  two 
officials,  dressed  in  long  fur-trimmed  robes  and  wear- 
ing the  tall  white  cylindrical  head-dress  known  as 
mujevveza,  met  him  at  the  Seraglio  gate  and  marched 
slowly  five  or  six  paces  in  front  of  him,  striking  the 
ground  at  regular  intervals  with  the  silver  staffs  which 
they  carried  in  their  hands,  till  they  reached  the  Gate 
of  Felicity  where  the  minister  was  received  by  two 
of  the  great  officers  of  the  household.  The  Second 
Lord  of  the  Stable  had  charge  of  the  royal  mews. 

The  Intendants  also  comprised  five  functionaries: 
these  were  the  Intendant  of  the  City,  the  Intendant 
of  the  Mint,  the  Intendant  of  the  Kitchens,  the  In- 
tendant of  the  Barley,  and  the  Imperial  Steward. 
All  these  officials  belonged  to  the  body  of  Khojagan, 
or  Chancellors. 

The  five  Masters  of  the  Hunt  were  the  Av  Aghasi, 
or  Master  of  the  Chase,  the  Chief  Falconer,  the  Chief 
Merlin-keeper,  the  Chief  Hawker,  and  the  Chief 
Sparrow-hawker.  These  officers  were  latterly  purely 
.titular,  as  the  Sultans  had  long  ceased  to  be  sports- 
men. 

In  the  fifth  class,  or  officers  subordinated  to  the 
Grand  Eunuch,  we  have  four  functionaries.  The 
Chief  Tent-pitcher,  who  had  under  his  orders  a  body 
of  eight  hundred  men  whose  duty  it  was  to  pitch  the 


OFFICERS   OF   STATE.  281 

Sultan's  tents  wherever  he  might  wish  to  pass  the 
day,  whether  in  the  SeragHo  gardens  or  in  one  of  his 
numerous  pleasaunces  in  the  environs  of  Constanti- 
nople. The  meanest  individuals  of  the  corps  of 
tent-pitchers  acted  as  executioners,  and  four  or  five 
of  these  always  stood  at  the  Middle  Gate  in  order  to 
be  at  hand  should  their  services  be  required.  (2)  The 
Chief  Treasurer,  who  had  charge  of  the  old  archives 
of  the  finance  department,  and  of  the  store  of  robes 
of  honour  which  were  bestowed  on  favoured  indi- 
viduals, and  of  the  satin  covers  in  which  the  imperial 
despatches  were  usually  wrapped  up — twenty  store- 
keepers obeyed  his  orders.  (3)  The  Chief  Merchant,  who 
had  to  procure  the  cloth,  muslin,  &c.,  required  for  the 
imperial  household.  And  lastly,  the  Chief  Present- 
keeper,  who  had  charge  of  all  the  presents  offered  by  his 
subjects  or  by  foreign  ministers  to  the  Grand  Signior. 
The  sixth  class,  the  officers  subordinated  to  the 
Comptroller  of  the  Buttery,  the  head  of  the  Third 
Chamber  of  Pages,  consisted  of  six  members.  The 
Chief  Assayer,  or  Taster,  under  whom  were  about 
fifty  assayers  whose  only  duty  was  to  wait  upon  the 
Grand  VezTr  and  other  ministers  when  they  dined  in 
the  Hall  of  the  Divan,  which  they  usually  did  after 
holding  a  court  of  justice.  The  title  arose  in  old 
times  when  kings  and  other  great  men  used  to  have 
an  officer  who  first  tasted  their  food  to  see  if  it  was 
not  poisoned.  The  Chief  Musician,  who  commanded 
(under  the  Lord  of  the  Banner)  the  military  band  of 
the  palace,  which  was  composed  of  sixteen  hautboys, 
sixteen  drums,  eleven  trumpets,  eight  kettle-drums, 
seven  pairs  of  cymbals,  and  four  great  tymbals.     The 


282  STAMBOL. 

Chief  Baker,  who  had  about  five  hundred  bakers 
under  him.  The  Master  of  the  Buttery,  who  was 
over  one  hundred  servants.  The  Chief  Cook,  under 
whom  worked  likewise  a  hundred  of  his  craft.  And 
finally,  the  Chief  Confectioner,  who  superintended 
some  five  hundred  comfit-makers.  This  great  array 
of  cooks,  confectioners,  and  so  on,  all  wore  the  same 
uniform,  a  green  cloth  robe  and  a  pointed  cap  of  white 
felt,  which  in  shape  bore  some  resemblance  to  a  large 
champagne  bottle. 

The  seventh  class,  the  Body-guards,  formed  two 
corps :  the  Solaks  or  Sinistrals,  and  the  Peyks  or 
Couriers.  The  Solaks  consisted  of  four  companies  of 
Janissaries,  of  one  hundred  men  each,  under  the  com- 
mand of  a  captain  called  the  Solak  Bashi  or  Chief 
Sinistral,  and  two  lieutenants.  These  soldiers  were 
richly  dressed,  their  gilt  headpieces  being  surmounted 
by  a  lofty  plume  ;  their  officers  wore  robes  of  green 
velvet  trimmed  with  lynx  fur.  The  Peyks  or  Couriers 
formed  a  body  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  men  under 
the  orders  of  an  officer  who  bore  the  title  of  Peyk 
Bashi  or  Chief  Courier.  Their  uniform  was  not  less 
splendid  than  that  of  the  Sinistrals ;  they  wore  helmets 
of  gilt  bronze  adorned  with  a  black  crest,  and  were 
armed  with  gilded  halberds.  Their  costume  is  said  to 
have  been  borrowed  from  that  of  the  body-guards  of 
the  old  Byzantine  emperors,  whose  gorgeous  court 
doubtless  furnished  the  model  for  many  of  the  insti- 
tutions which  appeared  in  the  Seraglio  of  their 
successors.  When  the  Sultan  rode  in  state  through 
the  streets,  the  Sinistrals  and  Couriers  used  to  march 
on  foot  round  his  horse. 


PALACE    GUARDS.  283 

The  Palace  Guards,  who  formed  the  last  class  of  the 
Masters  of  the  Outside,  consisted  of  the  following  six 
corps  :  the  Bostanjis  or  Gardeners,  the  Khassekls  or 
Royals,  the  Baltajis  or  Halberdiers,  the  Zulfli  Baltajis 
or  Tressed   Halberdiers,  the  Chawushes  or  Heralds^ 
and  the  Kapujis  or  Porters.     The  Bostanjis  or  Gar- 
deners,  who    numbered    about    two    thousand    five 
hundred  men,  nominally  formed  part  of  the  Ojak  or 
army-corps  of   the  Janissaries.     They  were  the  real 
guards  of  the  Seraglio  ;  and  to  members  of  their  body 
was  entrusted  the  protection  of  the  various  imperial 
parks   and    pleasure   grounds.     They  also    acted    as 
gardeners,  whence  their  name.     One  of  their  duties 
was  to  row  the  imperial  barge  v/hen  the  Sultan  was 
on  board.     The  Gardeners  could   be  recognized  by 
their  high  cylindrical  caps  of  red  felt  with  a  long  flap 
hanging  down  behind.     The  Bostanji  Bashi  or  Chief 
Gardener,  whom    we   have  already  seen    among  the 
Masters  of  the  Stirrup,  was  the  commander-in-chief  of 
this  large  and  important  corps  ;  he  had  under  him  a 
number  of  officers  whose  special  titles  it  is  unnecessary 
to  enumerate  here.     The  Khassekls  or  Royals  formed 
a  body  of  three  hundred  men   usually  chosen   from 
among  the  Gardeners.     They  wore  a  red  uniform  and 
were  armed  with  a  two-edged  sword.     The  Baltajis  or 
Halberdiers,  who  numbered  four  hundred,  were  nomi- 
nally  the   guards    of  the    Queens   and  the    imperial 
princes    and   princesses;  but    the  only   occasions   on 
which  they  really  attended  those  august  personages 
were  when  the  Sultan  took  some  of  the  members  of 
his  harem  to  bear  him  company  during  a  journey  or 
on  a  campaign.    Then  the  Baltajis  marched  beside  the 


2o4  STAMBOL. 

ladies'  carnages  and  at  night  camped  round  their 
tents.  On  these  occasions  they  were  armed  with 
halberds,  whence  they  received  their  name.  It  was 
they  who  carried  the  bier  at  the  funeral  of  a  Sultan  or 
a  member  of  the  imperial  family.  The  Zulfli  Baltajis 
or  Tressed  Halberdiers,  who  were  so  called  because 
they  wore  two  artificial  tresses  of  hair  which  were 
attached  to  their  caps  and  hung  down,  one  along  each 
cheek,  numbered  a  hundred  and  twenty  men,  and  were 
appointed  to  serve  the  pages  of  the  First  or  Royal 
Chamber.  The  Chawushes  or  Heralds  formed  a  corps 
of  six  hundred  and  thirty  men,  divided  into  fifteen 
companies  ;  they  marched  first  in  all  the  imperial  pro- 
cessions. Whenever  the  Sultan  made  his  appearance 
in  state  the  Heralds  shouted  the  Alkish  or  Acclaim, 
the  Turkish  equivalent  to  Vive  le Roi ;  it  was  :  "God 
give  long  life  to  our  lord  the  Padishah  !"  The  Kapujis 
or  Porters,  who  formed  the  last  division  of  the  Palace 
Guards,  were  eight  hundred  strong  ;  one  of  the  oldest 
of  the  corps  always  followed  the  Sultan  when  he 
appeared  in  public,  carrying  a  stool  decorated  with 
silver,  on  which  His  Majesty  placed  his  foot  when 
mounting  or  dismounting  his  horse. 

Except  those  actually  on  guard,  very  few  of  this 
army  of  Masters  of  the  Outside  passed  the  night  in 
the  Seraglio  ;  during  the  day  they  attended,  when 
necessary,  in  the  two  outer  courts,  or  played  their 
part  in  the  gorgeous  ceremonies  and  state  processions 
which  were  constantly  occurring  ;  but  most  of  them 
were  married  and  had  houses  in  the  city  to  which  they 
retired  when  the  duties  of  the  day  were  over.  In  this 
they  differed  widely  from  the  Masters  of  the  Inside, 


THE   SWORD-BEARER,  285 

none  of  whom  could  leave  the  inner  division  of  the 
palace  without  permission,  or  marry,  or  wear  a  beard. 
All  the  officers  and  servants  of  the  Imperial  house- 
hold, even  the  Sultan's  sons  and  brothers,  had  to 
shave  their  faces  all  but  the  moustaches;  the  Padishah 
alone  might  wear  a  beard.  Except  in  the  case  of  the 
Bostanjis  and  the  Body-guards,  this  rule  did  not  hold 
with  the  Masters  of  the  Outside,  who  were  permitted 
to  let  the  beard  grow,  as  was  till  a  few  years  ago  the 
universal  practice  with  all  Turks,  other  than  servants 
and  private  soldiers  and  sailors. 

The  Aghas  or  Masters  of  the  Inside,  who  formed 
the  private  household  of  the  Sultan,  consisted  of  two 
classes,  pages  and  eunuchs.  The  pages  were  divided 
into  four  companies  called  Odas  or  Chambers.  The 
first  of  these  was  the  Khass  Oda  or  Royal  Chamber 
which  comprised  forty  members,  the  Sultan  himself 
being  reckoned  the  fortieth.  All  the  members  of  this 
company  were  officers  of  high  standing  and  great 
influence.  Their  chief  who  commanded  all  the  Four 
Chambers  and  acted  as  major-domo  of  the  palace, 
bore  the  title  of  Silahdar  Agha  or  Master  Sword- 
bearer,  because  he  always  followed  the  Sultan,  carrying 
the  imperial  scimitar  in  its  scabbard  over  his  shoulder, 
grasping  it  near  the  point,  so  that  the  hilt  was  behind 
his  head.  He  wore  a  magnificent  robe  of  scarlet  and 
gold  brocade,  and  a  very  strange  head-dress  adorned, 
like  the  cap  of  the  Tressed  Halberdiers,  with  two 
locks  of  artificial  hair.  No  one,  except  perhaps  the 
Grand  Eunuch,  was  more  intimate  with  the  Sultan 
than  the  Sword-bearer,  who  often  possessed  immense 
influence,  and    was    not    unfrequently   raised    to   the 


286  STAMBOL. 

Grand  Vezlrship,  Grand  Admiralship,  or  some  other 
important  office  in  the  state.  Sixteen  of  the  other 
officers  of  this  chamber  had  titles  indicative  of  the 
services  they  performed  about  the  Sultan's  person  ; 
thus  there  were  the  Master  Vesturer,  one  of  whose 
duties  was  to  follow  the  Sultan  in  processions  and  cast 
handfuls  of  silver  coins  among  the  people  ;  the  Master 
Stirrup-holder,  who  held  the  Sultan's  stirrup  when  he 
mounted  his  horse  ;  the  Master  of  the  Turban,  who 
had  charge  of  the  imperial  turbans,  one  of  which  he 
carried  in  the  processions,  inclining  it  slightly  to  right 
and  left  as  a  salutation  to  the  people ;  the  Master  of 
the  Napkin  ;  the  Master  Ewer-keeper,  who  poured  the 
water  on  the  Sultan's  hands  when  he  made  the 
ablutions  ;  the  Private  Secretary  ;  the  Chief  Turban- 
winder  ;  the  Chief  Coffee-server  ;  the  Chief  Barber,  and 
so  on. 

The  second  company  of  pages  was  called  the  Khazlna 
Odasi  or  Treasury  Chamber,  and  was  intended  to 
guard  the  jewels  and  art  treasures  of  the  Crown. 
Among  their  officers  were  the  Comptroller  of  the 
Treasury,  who  had  among  other  duties  to  keep  the 
accounts  of  the  imperial  household :  the  Aigrette- 
keeper,  who  looked  after  the  aigrettes  or  ornaments  of 
jewels  and  feathers  with  which  the  royal  turbans  were 
decorated  ;  the  Robe-keeper,  who  had  charge  of  the 
state  robes  which  were  never  presented  to  the  Sultan 
without  having  first  been  perfumed  with  aloes-wood  ; 
the  Elder  of  the  Plate,  to  whose  care  were  entrusted 
the  services  of  porcelain  ;  the  Chief  Nightingale-keeper 
and  the  Chief  Parrot- keeper,  who  had  charge  of  the 
Sultan's  birds. 


THE   BUTTERY,  287 

The  Third  Chamber  was  that  of  the  Buttery,  its  chief 
being  called  the  Comptroller  of  the  Buttery.  The 
duty  of  this  division  of  pages  was  to  look  after  the 
bread,  fruit,  confections,  sherbets,  and  other  foods  and 
drinks  required  for  the  Sultan  and  his  harem.  The 
Chief  Assayer  was  one  of  their  officers  ;  another  was 
the  Chief  Minstrel,  who  had  charge  of  the  music  of  the 
interior  of  the  palace,  where  stringed  instruments — 
lutes,  mandolines,  and  rebecs,  enjoyed  the  greatest 
favour.  The  Sefer  Odasi  or  Journey  Chamber  was 
the  fourth  and  last.  In  old  times  its  members  used  to 
accompany  the  Sultan  when  he  went  on  a  campaign  ; 
but  latterly  it  became  a  sort  of  school  for  singing, 
dancing,  playing,  &c. 

Not  one  of  the  members  of  these  Four  Chambers  was 
a  Turk.  They  were  all  sons  of  Christians,  who  had 
been  taken  prisoner,  kidnapped  by  brigands,  or  sent 
as  tribute  by  vassal  princes.  When  the  Turks  re- 
captured a  rebel  Greek  town,  when  the  Tartars  made 
a  foray  into  Hungary  or  Poland,  when  the  Algerines 
took  a  Prankish  vessel  or  surprised  a  French  or  Italian 
village, — and  such  things  were  of  very  frequent  occur- 
rence a  century  or  so  ago — they  invariably  seized 
as  many  little  children  of  both  sexes  as  they  could 
lay  hands  on,  and  sent  the  best  to  Constantinople, 
sure  of  obtaining  a  high  price  or  reward  if  they 
were  deemed  of  sufficient  beauty  and  promise  to  be 
received  into  the  Seraglio.  If  such  was  their  lot,  the 
boys  were  educated  as  Musulmans,  either  in  a  school 
set  apart  for  that  purpose  in  the  palace  itself  or  in  a 
special  establishment  which  existed  at  Galata.  The 
reason  for  preferring  such  persons  to  native  Turks  was 


288  STAMBOL. 

the  idea  that  they  would  prove  more  faithful  to  their 
master;  ignorant  of  country  and  parents,  brought  up 
with  all  the  pride  of  Musulman  and  Turkish  nobles, 
and  knowing  no  master  or  benefactor  save  the  Sultan 
who  always  made  a  point  of  treating  them  with  kind- 
ness and  liberality,  and  frequently  appointed  members 
of  their  body  who  displayed  the  necessary  ability  to 
the  highest  offices  in  the  state,  it  was  thought  that 
they  would  naturally  be  more  single  minded  in  their 
loyalty  and  devotion  to  his  interests  and  person  than 
any  natives,  however  well  affected,  who  must  have  had 
many  ties  and  connections  beyond  the  palace  walls. 
All  the  eunuchs  were  foreigners,  and  all  the  women  of 
the  harem  were  foreigners,  acquired  as  prisoners  of 
war  or  purchased  from  Georgian  or  Circassian  parents  ; 
indeed  there  was  not  one  Turk  among  all  the  crowd 
who  dwelt  in  the  inner  Seraglio  save  the  Sultan  and 
the  members  of  his  family,  and  even  these  were  always 
the  children  of  foreign  mothers. 

The  Eunuchs  formed  two  corps,  the  Black  and  the 
White.  The  black  eunuchs,  who  were  all  Africans, 
numbered  about  two  hundred,  and  were  the  special 
guard  of  the  imperial  harem.  Their  chief,  whose  title 
was  the  Kizlar  Aghasi  or  Master  of  the  Girls,  was 
one  of  the  greatest  men  in  the  empire.  He  had 
the  rank  of  a  pasha  of  three  tails,  and  administered 
the  Holy  Cities  and  the  imperial  mosques,  from  which 
he  derived  an  enormous  income.  He  wore  a  white 
robe  trimmed  with  sable  and  a  cylindrical  head-dress 
of  white  muslin  twenty-five  inches  high.  The  white 
eunuchs,  eighty  strong,  who  looked  after  the  young 
pages,  obeyed  a  chief  whose  style  was  Kapu  Aghasi 


THE   IMPERIAL   HAREM,  29I 

or  Master  of  the  Gate.  Besides  these,  there  were  In 
the  inner  division  of  the  Seraglio  a  number  of  mutes 
and  dwarfs  ;  the  former  guarded  the  door  of  the  room 
or  paviHon  when  the  Sultan  conferred  with  some  great 
man,  an  idle  form,  as  every  one  in  the  palace  under- 
jtood  and  often  made  use  of  their  peculiar  language 
of  signs  ;  the  dwarfs  served  as  buffoons  to  divert  the 
Padishah  and  his  household. 

Penetrating  now  to  the  innermost  sanctuary  of  the 
Seraglio,  the  imperial  harem  itself,  we  find  that  an 
organization  not  less  systematic  than  that  which  pre- 
vailed amongthe  male  inhabitants  of  the  palace  reigned 
likewise  among  the  ladies  and  their  attendants.  The 
women  of  the  Sultan's  household  were  divided  into 
five  classes :  the  Kadins  or  Ladies,  the  Gediklis  or 
Handmaids,  the  Ustas  or  Mistresses,  the  Shagirds  or 
Novices,  and  the  Jarlyas  or  Damsels.  Of  these  the 
Kadins,  whose  number  was  usually  four,  were,  so  to 
speak,  the  consorts  of  the  Sultan,  what  Europeans 
would  call  his  Sultanas  (a  term  unknown  to  the 
Turks),  and  each  had  her  own  suite  of  apartments 
and  attendants.  When  a  Kadin  became  the  mother 
of  a  son  she  received  the  title  of  Khassekl  Sultan  or 
Royal  Princess,  when  of  a  daughter,  that  of  Khassekl 
Kadin  or  Royal  Lady.  On  the  birth  of  a  child  the 
harem  was  illuminated,  and  a  number  of  brilliant 
ceremonies  took  place.  The  Gediklis  were  a  company 
of  girls  on  whom  devolved  the  personal  service  of  the 
Sultan  when  he  chose  to  visit  or  reside  in  the  harem. 
Twelve  of  the  fairest  of  these,  the  elite  of  the  harem, 
held  offices  and  titles  corresponding  to  those  of  the 
highest  officers  of  the  First  Chamber  of  pages.  It  was 


292  STAMBOL. 

from  among  their  ranks  that  the  Padishah  chose  his 
Ikbals  or  favourites.  The  Mistresses  were  girls  attached 
to  the  service  of  the  Sultan's  mother,  a  very  important 
personage  in  the  harem,  and  to  that  of  the  Kadins 
and  their  children.  The  Novices  were  children  who 
were  educated  to  recruit  the  ranks  of  the  Gediklis 
and  Mistresses.  The  Damsels  were  the  servants  of 
all  the  others,  and  performed  the  manual  work  and 
menial  duties  of  the  establishment. 

The  imperial  harem  contained  as  a  rule  about  five 
or  six  hundred  women,  Europeans,  Asiatics,  and 
Africans,  hardly  one  of  whom  knew  whence  she  came. 
They  were  under  the  orders  of  a  Grand  Mistress  whose 
title  was  Kyahya  Kadin  or  Lady  Comptroller,  and 
who  was  usually  chosen  by  the  Sultan  from  among 
the  oldest  of  the  Gediklis.  This  lady  vvas  assisted  by. 
another  called  the  Khazinadar  Usta  or  Mistress 
Treasurer,  one  of  whose  duties  was  to  look  after  the 
expenses  of  the  harem. 

Such,  then,  was  the  Seraglio  in  the  old  days  of  its 
prosperity  before  the  reforming  hand  of  Sultan 
Mahmud  had  swept  away  its  medieval  splendour. 
The  household  of  the  Ottoman  monarch  of  to-day,  if 
more  in  keeping  with  the  spirit  of  the  times,  is  very 
commonplace  beside  that  of  last  century.  Nine-tenths 
of  the  old  offices  and  institutions  have  disappeared  ; 
stiff  European  uniforms  have  driven  away  the  flowing 
Eastern  robes  of  silk  and  velvet,  while  all  those 
marvellous  caps  and  turbans,  by  which  more  than  by 
anything  else  the  rank  of  each  man  might  have  been 
known,  have  vanished  to  be  replaced  by  the  charac- 
terless and  unvarying  fez.     Nevertheless  the  modern 


THE  PRIVY  PURSE.  293 

Seraglio  is  hardly  an  anchorite's  cell.  The  late  Sultan 
Abd-ul-AzTz  employed  at  least  six  thousand  servants 
and  officials,  and  his  privy  purse  cost  two  million 
pounds  a  year.  There  were  300  cooks,  400  grooms, 
400  boatmen,  400  musicians,  and  so  forth  ;  while  the 
harem  contained  1200  odaliks.  Special  officers  at- 
tended to  the  Sultan's  pipe,  his  coffee,  his  wardrobe, 
and  his  perfumed  washing-basin.  Somebody  must 
see  to  the  imperial  backgammon  board,  and  another 
to  the  august  chin.  ;^  16,000  a  year  was  spent  on  sugar. 
There  were  600  horses  in  the  stables,  and  1 50  coach- 
men and  footmen.  Abd-ul-AzIz  was  fond  of  pictures 
and  jewellery,  and  spent  a  quarter  of  a  million  on 
them  annually.  Ever}^  year  saw  him  at  least  three- 
quarters  of  a  million  deeper  in  debt  for  his  private 
expenditure.! 

But,  spend  how  he  would,  Abd-ul-AzTz  could  not  at- 
tain the  splendour  of  the  olden  times.  The  Seraglio 
system  indeed,  by  its  very  nature,  could  not  last  ;  all 
the  races  of  the  earth  were  not  created  simply  in 
order  to  furnish  slaves  or  toys  to  gratify  the  whims  of 
a  Grand  Signior;  and  even  if  no  Sultan  Mahmud  had 
abolished  them,  the  Four  Chambers  must  have  passed 
away  or  been  altogether  changed  from  sheer  lack  of  a 
legitimate  supply  of  white  men.  The  Sultans  would 
have  to  recruit  their  ranks  with  members  of  their  own 
race,  and  the  moment  this  was  done  their  old  boasted 
isolation  was  at  an  end. 

We  may  gain  some  idea  of  a  state  ceremony  in  the 
old  days  of  the  Seraglio  from  the  following  description 
of  a  reception  of  imperial  ambassadors  by  Sellm  the 

*  "  The  People  of  Turkey,"  by  a  Consul's  Daughter,  i.  247-9. 


294  STAMBOL. 

Second.      The  old-fashioned  language  of  Knolles  be- 
fits the  subject : 

"  So  accompanied  in  this  honourable  wise,  the 
Embassadors  enter  the  first  gate  of  the  Great  Turk's 
Palace.  This  gate  is  built  of  marble  in  most 
sumptuous  manner,  and  of  a  stately  height,  with 
certain  words  of  their  language  in  the  front  thereof, 
engraven  and  guilt  in  marble.  So  passing  through  the 
base  court,  which  hath  on  the  right  side  very  fair 
gardens,  and  on  the  left  divers  buildings,  serving  for 
other  offices,  with  a  little  Moschy,  they  come  to  the 
second  gate,  where  all  such  as  come  in  riding  must 
of  necessity  alight  ;  here,  so  soon  as  they  were  entered 
in  at  this  second  gate,  they  came  into  a  very  large 
square  court  with  buildings  and  galleries  round  about 
it,  the  kitchens  standing  on  the  right  hand,  with  other 
lodgings  for  such  as  belonged  to  the  Court,  and  on 
the  left  hand  likewise  rooms  deputed  to  like  services. 
There  are,  moreover,  many  halls  and  other  rooms  for 
resort  where  they  sit  in  Council,  handling  and  execut- 
ing the  public  affairs  either  of  the  Court  or  of  the  Em- 
pire, with  other  matters  where  the  Bassaes  (Pashas) 
and  other  officers  assemble  together.  Entering  in  at 
this  second  gate,  in  one  part  of  the  court,  which  seemed 
rather  some  large  street,  they  saw  the  whole  company 
of  the  Solaches  (Solaks)  set  in  a  goodly  rank,  which 
are  the  archers,  keeping  always  near  to  the  prison  of 
the  Great  Turk,  and  serving  as  his  footmen  when  he 
rideth  ;  they  use  high  plumes  of  feathers,  which  are 
set  bolt  upright  over  their  foreheads.  In  another  place 
there  stood  the  Capitzi  (Kapuji)  in  array,  with  black 
staves  of  Indian  canes  in  their  hands;  they  are  the 


AN  EMBASSY.  295 

porters  and  warders  of  the  gates  of  the  palace,  not 
much  differing  in  their  attire  from  the  Janissaries, 
who  stood  in  rank  likewise  in  another  quarter.  And 
besides  all  these,  with  many  more  that  were  out  of 
order,  as  well  of  the  Court  as  of  the  common  people, 
those  knights  of  the  Court  which  accompanied  the 
embassadors  thither  with  other  great  ones  likewise 
of  same  degree,  were  marshalled  all  in  their  several 
companies ;  and  among  the  rest  the  Mutarachaes 
(Matrakjis),  men  of  all  nations  and  of  all  religions 
(for  their  valour  the  only  free  men  which  live  at  their 
own  liberty  in  the  Turkish  Empire),  stood  there 
apparelled  in  damask  velvet  and  cloth  of  gold,  and 
garments  of  silk  of  sundry  kinds  of  colours  ;  their 
pomp  was  greater,  for  the  turbants  that  they  wore 
upon  their  heads  being  as  white  as  whiteness  itself, 
made  a  most  brave  and  goodly  show  well  worth  the 
beholding.  In  brief,  whether  they  were  to  be  con- 
sidered all  at  once,  or  in  particular,  as  well  for  the 
order  that  they  kept  as  for  their  sumptuous  presence, 
altogether  without  noise  or  rumour  ;  they  made  the 
Embassadors  and  the  rest  of  their  followers  there 
present,  eye-witnesses  both  of  their  obedience  and  of 
the  great  state  and  royalty  of  the  Othoman  Court. 
Passing  through  them  the  Embassadors  were  led  into 
the  hall  where  the  Bassaes  and  other  great  men  of 
the  Court  were  all  ready  to  give  them  entertainment, 
they  of  their  train  being  at  the  same  time  brought 
into  a  room  that  stood  apart  under  one  of  the  afore- 
said lodgings  all  hung  with  Turke}^  carpets.  Soon 
after  (as  their  use  and  manner  is)  they  brought  in 
their  dinner,  covering  the  ground  with  table-cloths  of 


296  STAMBOL, 

a  great  length  spread  upon  carpets,  and  afterwards 
scattering  a  marvellous  number  of  wooden  spoons, 
with  so  great  store  of  bread,  as  if  they  had  been  to 
feed  three  hundred  persons ;  then  they  set  on  meat  in 
order,  which  was  served  in  forty  two  great  platters 
of  earth  full  of  rice  pottage  of  three  or  four  kinds, 
differing  one  from  another,  some  of  them  seasoned 
with  honey  and  of  the  colour  of  honey  ;  some  with 
sour  milk,  and  white  of  colour  ;  and  some  with  sugar; 
they  had  fritters  also,  which  were  made  of  like 
batter  ;  and  mutton  besides,  or  rather  a  dainty  and 
toothsome  morsel  of  an  old  sodden  ewe.  The  table 
(if  there  had  any  such  been)  thus  furnished,  the  guests 
without  any  ceremony  of  washing  sat  down  on  the 
ground  (for  stools  there  were  none)  and  fell  to  their 
victual,  and  drank  out  of  great  earthen  dishes  water 
prepared  with  sugar,  which  kind  of  drink  they  call 
zerbet  (sherbet).  But  so  having  made  a  sort  of  repast, 
they  were  no  sooner  risen  up  but  certain  young  men 
whom  they  call  Grainoglans  (Ajem-Oghlans),  with 
others  that  stood  round  about  them,  snatched  it  up 
hastily  as  their  fees,  and  like  greedy  Harpies  ravened 
it  down  in  a  moment.  The  embassadors  in  the 
meantime  dined  in  the  hall  with  the  Bassaes.  And 
after  dinner  certain  of  the  Capitzies  were  sent  for, 
and  twelve  of  the  Embassadors'  followers  were  ap- 
pointed to  do  the  great  Sultan  reverence  ;  by  whom 
(their  presents  being  already  conveyed  away)  they 
were  removed  out  of  the  place  where  they  dined 
and  brought  on  into  an  under  room,  from  whence 
there  was  an  ascent  into  the  hall  where  the  Bassaes 
were  staying  for  the  embassadors,  who  soon  after  came 


COURT   CEREMONY.  297 

forth,  and  for  their  ease  sat  them  down  upon  the 
benches,  whilst  the  Bassaes  went  in  to  Se/j/mus,  who 
before  this  time  had  made  an  end  of  dinner,  and  was 
removed  in  all  his  royalty  into  one  of  his  chambers, 
expecting  the  coming  of  the  Embassadors.  All 
things  now  in  readiness,  and  the  Embassadors  sent  for, 
they  set  forward  with  their  train,  and  came  to  the 
third  gate  which  leadeth  into  the  Privy-Palace  of  the 
Turkish  Emperor,  where  none  but  himself,  his  eunichs, 
and  the  young  pages  his  minions,  being  in  the  eunich's 
custody,  have  continual  abiding,  into  which  inward 
part  of  the  palace  none  entereth  but  the  Capitzi 
Bassa  (Kapuji  Bashi)  (who  hath  the  keeping  of  this 
third  gate)  and  the  Asigniers  (that  serve  in  the  Turk's 
meat)  with  the  Bassaes  and  some  few  other  great 
men,  and  that  only  when  they  have  occasion  so  to  do 
by  reason  of  some  great  business,  or  sent  for  by  the 
Sultan.  Being  entered  in  at  this  gate,  which  is  of  a 
stately  and  royal  building,  the  Capitzi,  by  whom 
they  were  conducted,  suddenly  caused  them  to  stay, 
and  set  them  one  from  another  about  five  paces  in  a 
little  room  which,  nevertheless,  was  passing  delicate, 
all  curiously  painted  over  with  divers  colours,  and 
stood  between  the  gate  and  the  more  inner  lodgings, 
on  both  sides  of  which  room,  when  all  things  were 
whist  and  in  a  deep  silence,  certain  little  birds  were 
only  heard  to  warble  out  their  sweet  notes,  and  to 
flicker  up  and  down  the  green  trees  of  the  gardens 
(which  all  along  cast  a  pleasant  shadow  from  them) 
as  if  they  alone  had  obtained  licence  to  make  a  noise. 
Selyinus  himself  was  in  great  majesty  sat  in  an  under- 
chamber,  parted  only  with  a  wall  from  a  room  wherein 


298  STAMBOL, 

the  Embassadors'  followers  attended,  vvhereinto  he 
might  look  through  a  little  window,  the  portal  of  his 
said  chamber,  standing  in  counterpart  with  the  third 
gate  above  mentioned.  The  Embassadors  entering 
in,  were  led  single,  and  one  after  another,  to  make 
their  reverence  to  the  Great  Turk,  and  in  the  mean- 
time certain  of  the  Capitzi,  with  the  presents  in  their 
hands,  fetching  a  compass  about  before  the  window, 
mustered  them  in  his  sight  All  this  while  not  the 
least  sound  in  the  world  being  raised,  but  a  sacred 
silence  kept  in  every  comer,  as  if  men  had  been  going 
to  visit  the  holiest  place  in  Jerusalem.  Yet  for  all 
that  the  Embassadors'  followers,  placed  one  after 
another  (as  aforesaid)  were  not  aware  that  the 
great  Sultan  was  so  near,  looking  still  when  they 
should  have  been  led  on  forwards  all  together  ;  how- 
beit  they  were  set  in  one  after  another,  neither  did 
they  that  were  so  set  out  return  again  into  the  room, 
but  having  severally  done  their  reverence,  were  all 
(except  the  Embassadors  that  still  staid  in  the  cham- 
ber) by  one  and  one  sent  out  another  way  into  the 
court ;  neither  could  he  that  came  after  see  his  fellow 
that  went  before  him  after  he  was  once  taken  in  to  do 
his  reverence,  but  suddenly  as  the  former  was  let  out 
the  next  was  advanced  forward  to  the  door  where 
Jsman  the  Capitzi  -  Bassa  and  the  Odda  -  Bassa, 
taking  him  by  both  arms  and  by  the  neck,  the  one  at 
the  right  hand  and  the  other  at  the  left,  and  so  leading 
him  apace  by  the  way  softly  left  his  wrists  with  their 
hands,  lest  peradventure  he  might  have  some  soft 
weapon  in  his  sleeve.  Yet  were  they  all  not  thus 
groped  as  Marc  Antonio  Pagasetta  (the  reporter   of 


AUDIENCE.  299 

this  negotiation)  saith  of  himself  and  some  others 
also.  However,  this  hath  been,  and  yet  is  the  manner 
of  giving  of  access  unto  the  person  of  the  Great  Turk 
ever  since  that  Amurath  the  First  was,  after  the  battle 
of  Cassova,  murdered  by  one  of  Lazarus  the  Despot's 
men,  who  admitted  in  his  presence  in  revenge  of  the 
wrong  done  unto  his  master,  with  a  short  poniard 
that  he  had  closely  hidden  about  him,  so  stabbed  him 
in  the  belly  that  he  presently  died.  And  thus  like 
men  rather  carried  to  prison  by  sergeants  than  to  the 
presence  of  so  mighty  a  monarch,  they  were  presented 
unto  his  majesty  ;  he,  sitting  upon  a  pallet  which  the 
Turks  call  mastal,  used  by  them  in  their  chambers  to 
sleep  and  to  feed  on,  covered  with  carpets  of  silk,  as 
were  the  whole  floor  of  the  chamber  also.  The 
chambers  itself,  being  not  very  great,  was  but  dark 
altogether  without  windows,  excepting  that  one 
whereof  we  have  before  spoken,  and  having  the  walls 
painted  and  set  out  in  most  fresh  and  lively  colours 
by  great  cunning,  and  with  a  most  delicate  grace  ; 
yet  use  they  neither  pictures  nor  the  image  of  any- 
thing in  their  paintings.  The  Visier's  Bassaes,  before 
mentioned,  were  standing  at  the  left  hand  as  they 
entered  in  at  the  chamber  door,  one  by  another  in 
one  side  of  the  chamber,  and  the  Embassadors  on  the 
right  hand  on  the  other  side  standing  likewise  and 
uncovered.  The  Dragomans  were  in  another  part  of 
the  chamber  near  the  place  where  the  Sultan  sat, 
gorgeously  attired  in  a  robe  of  cloth  of  gold  all  em- 
broidered with  jewels,  when,  as  the  Embassador's 
followers  by  one  and  one  brought  before  him  (as  is 
aforesaid)  and  kneeling  on  the  ground,  a  Turk  stand- 


3^0  STAMBOL. 

ing  on  his  right  hand,  with  all  reverence  taking  up 
the  hem  of  his  garment,  gave  it  them  in  their  hands 
to  kiss.  Selymus  himself  all  this  while  sitting  like 
an  image  without  moving,  and  with  a  great  state  and 
majesty  keeping  his  countenance,  deigned  not  to  give 
them  one  of  his  looks.  This  done  they  were  led  back 
again,  never  turning  their  backs  towards  him,  but 
going  still  backwards  until  they  were  out  of  his 
presence.  So  after  they  had  all  thus  made  their  rever- 
ence, and  were  departed  out  of  the  chamber,  the  Em- 
bassadors delivered  unto  Selymus  all  the  Emperor's 
letters,  and  briefly  declared  unto  him  their  message ; 
whom  he,  answering  in  four  words  as,  'that  they 
were  to  confer  with  his  Bassaes ; '  presently  they  were 
dismissed.  And  so  coming  out  of  the  two  inner  gates 
they  mounted  on  horseback  and  took  the  way,  lead- 
ing towards  their  lodging,  being  at  their  return  ac- 
companied by  the  whole  order  of  the  Janissaries,  with 
their  aga  and  other  captains,  among  whom  were 
certain  of  their  religious  men  called  Haagi  (which 
used  to  follow  the  Janissaries)  vho  continually  turning 
about,  and  in  their  going,  singing  or  rather  howling 
out  certain  psalms  and  prayers  for  the  welfare  of  their 
great  Sultan,  gave  the  Embassadors  and  their  followers 
occasion  to  wonder,  that  they  either  left  not  for  weari- 
ness or  fell  not  down  like  Noddies  for  giddiness.  All 
these  were  sent,  the  more  honourably  to  accompany 
the  Embassadors  to  their  lodging  ;  and  beside  these, 
many  more  on  horseback  than  attended  them  at 
their  coming  forth  ;   in  regard  whereof  the  Embas- 

*  Knolles,  i,  563-4. 


A   MEDIEVAL  EMBASSY. 


301 


sadors,  when  they  were  come  to  their  lodging,  to 
requite  their  greedie  courtesy,  frankly  distributed 
amongst  them  above  four  thousand  dollars,  and  yet 
well  contented  them  not."  ^ 


XV. 

OTTOMAN   LITERATURE. 

The   literature   of   the  Ottomans  was,  like   their 
civilization,  borrowed  from  the  Persians  through  the 
Seljuks  ;  and    it   is    natural    that    we   should  find    a 
close  resemblance  between  their  writings  and  those  of 
their  Persian   masters.     We  are   not   then    surprized 
when  we  see  the  same  tone  and  sentiment,  the  same 
figures  of   speech,  and   the   same  structure  of  verse, 
in    the    literatures    of   the    two    peoples.      In    both 
the   poetry  is    superior   to   the    prose.     Persian    and 
Ottoman  poems  are,  when  at  their  best,  marked  by 
extreme  grace  and  finish,  by  great  elegance  of  dic- 
tion, and  not  unfrequently  by  a  beautiful  harmony- 
But  they   are,  on   the  other    hand,  highly  artificial  ; 
the  sentiment  is  often  exaggerated,  the  ideas  either 
conventional  or   far-fetched,  and   the   language  dis- 
figured by  a  variety  of  verbal  conceits,  too  often  of 
a  very  childish  description.     If  we  except  the  long 
narrative  poems,  the  range  of  subjects  sung  by  the 
muses  of  Persia  and  Turkey  is  very  limited.     Love, 
with   its   woes  and   its  joys,  naturally  and  by  right 
assumes  the  first  place  ;  then   we  have  the  charms 
of  the  springtide,  the  sweet  song  of  the  nightingale, 
the  beauty  of  the  flowers,  and  other  delightful  things 


THE  GHAZEL.  303 

of  Nature,  generally  with  an  undertone  of  religious 
mysticism  audible  throughout.  And  that  is  well-nigh 
all.  It  is  remarkable  that  the  Turks,  though  essen- 
tially a  military  people,  had  no  war-poetry  worthy  of 
the  name  ;  the  Persians  had  none  (apart  from  their 
epics),  and  so  it  never  occurred  to  the  Ottomans  to 
write  any. 

The  long  narrative  poems  already  mentioned  are 
written  in  rhyming  couplets  ;  but  the  most  marked 
feature  in  the  rhyme-system  of  these  Eastern  litera- 
tures is  what  is  known  as  the  monorhyme.  A  single 
rhyme-sound,  that  of  the  first  couplet,  is  carried 
throughout  the  entire  poem  ;  this  rhyme  is  repeated 
in  the  second  line  of  each  that  follows,  while  their 
first  lines  do  not  rhyme  at  all.  Examples  of  this 
system,  which  is  very  simple,  will  be  seen  in  most  of 
the  translated  poems  that  occur  in  this  chapter.  The 
favourite  composition  of  the  Ottoman  poets  is  called 
iki^ghazel;  this  is  a  short  monorhythmic  poem,  usually 
consisting  of  less  than  a  dozen  couplets,  in  the  last 
of  which  the  writer  generally  inserts  his  name,  as 
though  putting  his  signature  to  his  little  work. 

The  prose  in  its  higher  flights  is  generally  bom- 
bastic, often  involved,  and,  like  the  poetry,  bristles 
with  equivoques  and  other  verbal  tricks,  which,  though 
frequently  ingenious,  are  more  or  less  trivial,  and 
always  give  a  forced  and  unnatural  appearance  to  the 
style.  A  peculiarity  of  ambitious  prose  is  the  sej, 
an  embellishment  which  consists  in  making  the  last 
words  of  the  several  clauses  of  a  sentence  rhyme 
together,  the  result  being  a  jingle  rather  irritating 
than  otherwise  to  Western  ears.     The  extracts  which 


304  OTTOMAN  LITERATURE. 

are  here  translated  from  the  old  chronicler  Sa'd-ud-din, 
will  give  the  reader  some  idea  of  the  effect  of  the  sej. 
The  simpler  prose  is  more  natural,  and  consequently- 
more  pleasing  ;  but  it  is  apt  to  err  in  the  opposite 
direction,  and  become  bald  and  uninteresting. 

Ottoman  literature  is  very  extensive,  writers  of 
every  kind,  but  especially  poets,  having  been  at  all 
times  both  numerous  and  prolific.  We  shall  have  to 
content  ourselves  here  with  making  the  acquaintance 
of  a  few  of  the  most  eminent  of  those  authors  who 
have  won  for  themselves  a  high  position  in  the  literary 
history  of  their  country. 

One  of  the  earliest  of  Ottoman  poets  is  GhazI 
Fazil,  a  Turkish  noble  who  crossed  the  Hellespont  on 
the  raft  with  Prince  Suleyman  that  night  when  the 
Ottomans  gained  their  first  foothold  in  Europe  (p.  34). 
The  following  lines,  evidently  written  after  some 
successful  fight  with  the  Byzantines,  may  possibly 
refer  to  this  expedition  in  which  the  warrior-poet 
helped  to  win  a  new  empire  for  his  race  : — ' 

*'  We  smote  the  paynim  once  again,  our  God  did  send  us  grace  ; 
The  arrows  of  our  holy- war  were  thorns  in  the  foeman's  face. 
All  spirits  that  are  in  the  skies  came  down  lo  lend  us  might, 
And  from  the  earth  arose  to  succour  us  our  martyr  race. 
We  look  to  God  for  aidance,  they  of  holy-war  we  l^e, 
And  in  the  cause  of  God  our  lives  and  bodies  offer  we." 

Some  time  after  this,  Sheykhl  of  Kermiyan  wrote 
a  long  narrative  poem  on  the  adventures  of  Shlrln, 

^  In  this  fragment,  as  in  all  the  other  renderings  of  verse  in  this 
chapter,  besides  translating  almost  literally  and  line  for  line,  I  have 
retained  the  rhyme-movement  and,  as  far  as  |x>ssible,  the  metre  of  the 
original,  hoping  in  this  way  to  give  the  reader  as  accurate  an  idea  as 
I  can  of  the  general  effect  of  Turkish  poetry. 


THE   FORTY   VEZIRS.  305 

the  favourite  heroine  of  Persian  romance  ;  and  later 
still  Yaziji-oghlu  composed  a  versified  history  of  the 
Prophet,  which  he  named  the  Mohammediya.  The 
most  interesting  prose  work  of  this  early  perici  is 
a  collection  of  old  popular  tales,  known  as  the 
"  History  of  the  Forty  VezTrs,"  compiled  by  an 
author  of  the  first  half  of  the  fifteenth  century,  who 
calls  himself  Sheykh-zada  or  the  Sheykh's  son,  and 
whose  personal  name  was  probably  Ahmed.  The 
following  story,  which  is  that  told  by  the  twentieth 
Vezir,  shows  at  once  the  character  of  the  tales  and 
the  simple  unaffected  style  in  which  the  book  is 
written  : 

"  Of  old  time  there  was  a  great  king.  One  day, 
when  returning  from  the  chase,  he  saw  a  dervish 
sitting  by  the  way,  crying,  *  I  have  a  piece  of  advice  ; 
to  him  who  will  give  me  a  thousand  sequins,  I  will 
tell  it'  When  the  king  heard  these  words  of  the 
dervish  he  drew  in  his  horse's  head  and  halted,  and 
he  said  to  the  dervish, '  What  is  thy  counsel  ?  '  The 
dervish  replied,  '  Bring  the  sequins  and  give  me 
them  that  I  may  tell  my  counsel'  The  king  ordered 
that  they  counted  a  thousand  sequins  into  the  dervish's 
lap.  The  dervish  said,  '  O  king,  my  advice  to  thee 
is  this  :  whenever  thou  art  about  to  do  a  deed,  con- 
sider the  end  of  that  deed,  and  then  act.'  The 
nobles  who  were  present  laughed  together  at  these 
words  and  said,  '  Any  one  knows  that.'  But  the 
king  rewarded  that  poor  man.  He  was  greatly 
pleased  with  the  words  of  the  dervish,  and  com- 
manded that  they  wrote  them  on  the  palace-gate 
and  other  places.     Now  that  king  had  an  enemy,  a 


306  OTTOMAN   LITERATURE, 

great  king ;  and  this  hostile  king  was  ever  watching 
his  opportunity  ;  but  he  could  find  no  way  save  this, 
he  said  in  himself, '  Let  me  go  and  promise  the  king's 
barber  some  worldly  good  and  give  him  a  poisoned 
lancet ;  some  day  when  the  king  is  sick  he  can  bleed 
him  with  that  lancet'  So  he  disguised  himself,  and 
went  and  gave  the  barber  a  poisoned  lancet  and 
ten  thousand  sequins.  And  the  barber  was  covetous 
and  undertook  to  bleed  the  king  with  that  lancet 
what  time  it  should  be  needful.  One  day  the  king 
Was  sick,  and  he  sent  word  to  the  barber  to  come 
and  bleed  him.  Thereupon  the  barber  took  that 
poisoned  lancet  with  him  and  went.  The  attendants 
prepared  the  basin,  and  the  barber  saw  written  on 
the  rim  of  the  basin,  '  Whenever  thou  art  about  to 
perform  a  deed,  think  on  the  end  thereof.'  When 
the  barber  saw  this  he  said  in  himself,  *  I  am  now 
about  to  bleed  the  king  with  this  lancet  and  doubtless 
he  will  perish,  then  will  they  not  leave  me  alive,  but 
will  inevitably  kill  me  ;  after  I  am  dead  what  use 
will  these  sequins  be  to  me?'  And  he  took  up  that 
lancet  and  put  it  in  its  place,  and  drew  out  another 
lancet  that  he  might*  bleed  the  king.  When  he  took 
his  arm  a  second  time,  the  king  said,  *  Why  didst 
thou  not  bleed  me  with  the  first  lancet } '  The 
barber  answered,  *  O  king,  there  was  some  dust  on 
its  point.'  Then  the  king  said,  '  I  saw  it,  it  is  not 
the  treasury  lancet ;  there  is  some  secret  here,  quick, 
tell  it,  else  I  will  slay  thee.'  When  the  barber  saw 
this  importunity,  he  related  the  story  from  beginning 
to  end,  and  how  he  had  seen  the  writing  on  the 
basin  and  changed  his  intention.      The  king  put  a 


AHMED   AND   SIN  AN  PASHAS,  309 

robe  of  honour  on  the  barber  and  let  him  keep  the 
sequins  which  his  enemy  had  given  him.  And  the 
king  said,  '  The  dervish's  counsel  is  worth  not  one 
thousand  sequins,  but  a  hundred  thousand  sequins.'"  ^ 

But  there  is  little  work  of  real  merit  before  the 
capture  of  Constantinople  in  1453.  Not  very  long 
after  that  event  certain  ghazels  of  Mir  All  Shir 
Nevayl,  a  contemporary  Tartar  prince  and  poet, 
found  their  way  to  the  newly-won  capital  of  the 
Ottomans.  There  ihey  were  copied  by  Ahmed  Pasha, 
one  of  the  Vezirs  of  Mohammed  11.  Although  they 
possess  no  originality,  many  of  them  being  little 
else  than  translations  from  Nevayl,  the  poems 
of  this  minister  are  among  the  landmarks  in 
Ottoman  literary  history.  It  was  only  after  their 
appearance  that  poetry  began  to  be  regularly  culti- 
vated, and  they  rendered  important  service  in  the 
work  of  settling  and  refining  the  language.  Sinan 
Pasha,  another  of  the  Conqueror's  Vezirs,  was  the 
first  who  excelled  in  high-flown  prose  ;  he  is  author 
of  a  religious  work  entitled  Tazarru'at  "  Supplica- 
tions," the  style  of  which,  notwithstanding  a  lavish 
use  of  the  embellishments  supplied  by  Persian 
rhetoric,  is  remarkable  for  its  lucidity  and  directness. 
Here  are  one  or  two  sentences  from  it : 

"  Thou  art  a  Creator,  such  that  nonentity  is  the 
store  for  Thy  creations  ;  Thou  art  an  Originator,  such 
that  nothingness  is  the  material  for  Thy  formations  ! 
Far-sighted  understanding  cannot  see  the  horizon  of 
the  summit  of  Thy  righteousness  ;  swift-winged  en- 

'  "  The  History  of  the  Forty  Vezirs,"  translated  by  E.  J.  W-  Gibb, 
pp.  22CH323.     (Redway,   l8300 


310  OTTOMAN  LITERATURE, 

deavour  cannot  reach  the  verge  of  the  pavilion  of  Thy 
mightiness.  The  soaring  eagle,  the  human  mind,  to 
which  the  existences,  celestial  and  terrestrial,  are  ever 
the  prey  of  claw  and  beak,  cannot  open  the  wing  and 
fly  for  one  moment  in  the  air  of  Thy  sublimity  ;  and 
the  peacock,  mortal  thought  and  understanding,  which 
strutteth  day  and  night  in  the  plain  of  domain  and  the 
mead  of  might,  cannot  move  one  step  on  the  road  to 
Thy  divinity." 

The  lyric  poets  Nejati  and  ZatT,  who  follow  Ahmed 
Pasha,  show  a  marked  advance  ;  while  the  poetesses 
Zeyneb  and  Mihrl  deserve  mention  among  the  more 
notable  writers  of  the  time  of  Mohammed  II.  As 
we  have  seen  in  a  previous  chapter,  that  sovereign, 
like  most  of  his  house,  warmly  patronized  literature 
and  men  of  letters,  was  himself  a  poet,  and  some  tole- 
rable verses  by  him  are  preserved  in  the  old  antho- 
logies. His  grandson,  Selim  I ,  surnamed  Yawuz, 
"  the  Grim,"  was  perhaps  the  greatest  of  the  Ottoman 
Sultans ;  high  as  were  his  military  and  administrative 
talents,  they  were  hardly  more  remarkable  than  his 
poetic  genius.  Of  the  four  and  thirty  monarchs  who 
have  occupied  the  throne  of  Osman,  twenty-one  have 
left  verses,  and  of  these  twenty-one  Selim  the  First  is 
unquestionably  the  truest  poet.  His  work  is,  however^ 
for  the  most  part  in  the  Persian  language,  a  circum- 
stance much  to  be  regretted,  as,  had  he  chosen  to 
write  in  Turkish,  his  high  talents  could  hardly  have 
failed  to  render  valuable  service  to  the  language  and 
literature  of  his  nation.  The  following  is  a  translation 
of  one  of  the  few  Turkish  ghazeis  which  this  great 
monarch  wrote  : 


G HAZEL   OF  SELIM  I.  3II 

"Down  in  oceans  from  mine  eyen     rail  the  tears  for  grame  and   teen, 
Acheth  still  my  head  for  all  the  dolour  that  my  feres  have  seen. 
That  the  army  of  my  visions  o'er  the  flood,  my  tears,  may  pass. 
Form    mine   eyebrows  twain  a    bridge,  one-piered,  with   arches  two 

beseen.^ 
Clad  in  gold-bespangled  raiment,  all  of  deepest  heavenly  hue, 
Comes  the  ancient  Sphere  each  night-tide,  fain  to  play  my  wanton 

quean.  ^ 
Lonely  had  I  strayed  a  beggar  through  the  realms  of  strangerhood, 
Had  not  pain  and  woe  and  anguish  aye  my  close  companions  been. 
O  thou  Sphere,  until  the  Khan  Selim  had  nine  full  beakers  drained. 
Ne'er  did  he,  on  all  earth's  surface,  find  a  faithful  friend,  I  ween.  "3 

Kemal-Pasha-zada  Ahmed,  often  called  Ibn-Kemal 
a  high  legal  functionary,  distinguished  himself  during 
this  reign  both  in  verse  and  prose ;  among  his  works 
are  a  poem  on  the  romantic  history  of  Joseph  and 
Zuleykha  (as  the  Easterns  name  Potiphar's  wife),  and 
a  treatise  called  the  Nig«aristan,  similar  in  style  to  the 
well-known  Gulistan  or  "  Rose-garden  "  of  the  Persian 
Sa'dl.  MesihT,  another  contemporary  of  Sellm  I.,  is 
chiefly  known  through  one  poem  of  great  beauty, 
which  has  gained  for  its  author  a  European  celebrity. 
This  is  an  ode  on  spring,  consisting  of  eleven  four- 
line  strophes,  four  of  which  I  quote  : 

'  Indulging  in  one  of  those  quaint  conceits,  of  which  the  old  poets, 
Western  as  well  as  Eastern,  were  so  fond,  the  Sultan  here  conceives  his 
nose  and  eyebrows  as  forming  a  bridge  for  the  fancies  that  throng  in  his 
brain,  while  his  tears  represent  the  torrent  that  flows  beneath. 

^  In  Ottoman  poetry  the  Sphere  represents  our  "fickle  Fortune." 
Here  this  personified  Sphere  is  purposely  confounded  with  the  starry 
sky. 

3  The  "  nine  full  beakers  "  refer  to  the  nine  spheres  of  the  Ptolemaic 
astronomy.  The  couplet  probably  means  that  until  the  Sultan  had 
fathomed  the  mystery  of  the  universe,  he  had  not  found  the  one  true 
Friend,  i.e.,  God;  but  it  is  rather  obscure,  as  a  good  deal  of  old 
Ottoman  poetry  is  too  apt  to  be. 


312  OTTOMAN  LITERATURE. 

"Hark,  the  bulbul's*  blithsome  carol:   *  Now  are  come  the  days  of 

spring  ! ' 
Merry  bands  and  shows  are  spread  in  every  mead,  a  maze  o'  spring  ; 
There  the  ahiiond-tree  bescatters  silvern  showers,  sprays  o'  spring. 
Drink,  be  gay  ;  for  soon  will  vanish,  biding  not,  the  days  o'  spring  ! 


Rose  and  tulip  bloom  as  beauties  bright  o'  blee  and  sweet  o'  show, 
Who  for  jewels  hang  the  dew-drops  in  their  ears  to  gleam  and  glow. 
Deem  not  thou,  thyself  beguiling,  things  will  aye  continue  so. 

Drink,  be  gay  ;  for  soon  will  vanish,  biding  not,  the  days  o'  spring  ! 


While  each  dawn  the  clouds  are  shedding  jewels  o'er  the  rosy  land, 
And  the  breath  of  morning's  zephyr,  fraught  with  Tartar  musk,  is  bland. 
While  the  world's  delight  is  present,  do  not  thou  unheeding  stand  ; 
Drink,  be  gay  ;  for  soon  will  vanish,  biding  not,  the  days  o'  spring  ! 

With  the  fragrance  of  the  garden,  so  imbued  the  musky  air, 
Every  dew-drop,  ere  \t  reacheth  earth,  is  turned  to  attar  rare ; 
O'er  the  garth,  the  heavens  spread  the  incense-cloud's  pavilion  fair. 
Drink,  be  gay ;  for  soon  will  vanish,  biding  not,  the  days  o'  spring  !  " 


Up  to  this  time  all  Ottoman  writings  had  been 
more  or  less  rugged  and  unpolished,  but  in  the  reign 
of  Sellm's  son,  Suleyman  I.  (i 520-1 566),  a  new  era 
began.  Two  great  poets,  Fuzull  and  Bakl,  make  their 
appearance  about  the  same  time  ;  the  one  in  the  east, 
the  other  in  the  west,  of  the  now  far- extending 
empire.  Fuzull  of  Baghdad,  one  of  the  four  great 
poets  of  the  old  Turkish  school,  is  the  first  writer  of 
real  eminence  who  arose  in  the  Ottoman  dominions. 
None  of  his  predecessors  in  any  way  approaches  him  ; 
and  although  his  work  is  in  the  Persian  style  and 
taste,  he  is  no  servile  copier  ;  on  the  contrary,  he 
struck  out  for  himself  a  new  path,  one  hitherto  un- 

*  The  bulbul  is  the  nightingale. 


FUZULL  313 

trodden  by  either  Turk  or  Persian.  His  chief  cha- 
racteristic is  an  intense  and  passionate  earnestness, 
which  sometimes  betrays  him  into  extravagances;  and 
although  few  Turkish  poets  are  in  one  way  more 
artificial  than  he,  few  seem  to  speak  more  directly 
from  the  heart.  His  best  known  works  consist  of 
his  Divan  or  collection  of  ghazels,  and  a  poem  on  the 
loves  of  Leyll  and  Mejnun  ;  he  has  besides  some 
prose  writings,  which  are  hardly  inferior  to  his  verse- 
His  works  are  in  a  provincial  dialect,  which  differs 
considerably  from  the  Turkish  of  Constantinople ; 
and  this  is  perhaps  the  reason  why  no  school  of  poets 
followed  in  his  footsteps.  The  two  following  ghazels 
will  give  an  idea  of  Fuzuh's  usual  style : 

*'  O  my  loved  one,  though  the  world  because  of  thee  my  foe  should  be, 
'Twere  no  sorrow,  for  thyself  alone  were  friend  enow  for  me. 
Scorning  every  comrade's  rede,  L  cast  me  wildly  midst  of  love  ; 
Ne'er  shall  foe  do  me  the  anguish  I  have  made  myself  to  dree. 
Dule  and  pain  shall  never  fail  me,  long  as  life  and  frame  aby  ; 
Life  may  vanish,  frame  turn  ashes  :  what  is  life  or  frame  to  me  ! 
Ah,  I  knew  not  union's  value,  parting's  pang  I  ne'er  had  borne  ; 
Now  the  gloom  of  absence  lets  ine  many  a  dim  thing  clearly  see. 
Yonder  Moon  '  hath  bared  her  glance's  glaive ;  be  not  unheeding,  heart; 
For  decreed  this  day  are  bitter  wail  to  me,  and  death  to  thee. 

0  Fuzuli,  though  that  life  should  pass,  from  Love's  way  pass  not  I ; 
By  the  path  where  lovers  wander  make  my  grave,  I  pray  do  ye. 

Whensoe'er  I  call  to  mind  the  feast  of  union  'twixt  us  twain. 

Like  the  flute,  I  wail  so  long  as  my  waste  frame  doth  breath  retain. 

'Tis  the  parting  day ;  rejoice  thee,  O  thou  bird,  my  soul,  for  now 

1  at  length  shall  surely  free  thee  from  this  cage  of  pine  and  pain.^ 
Lest  that  any,  fondly  hoping,  cast  his  love  on  yonder  Moon, 
Seeking  justice  'gainst  her  rigour,  unto  all  I  meet  I  plain. 

^  "  Yonder  Moon  "  is,  of  course,  the  beautiful  object  of  his  love. 
^  He  is  about  to  be  parted  from  his  beloved,  consequently  he  will  die^ 
and  thus  set  free  his  soul  f  1  om  the  cage  of  the  body. 


314  OTTOMAN  LITERATURE. 

Grieve  not  I  whate'er  injustice  rivals  may  to  me  display  ; 

Needs  must  I  my  heart  accustom  Love's  injustice  to  sustain. 

Well  I  know  I  ne'er  shall  win  to  union  with  thee,  still  do  I 

Cheer  at  times  my  cheerless  spirit  with  the  hope  as  fond  as  vain. 

I  have  washed  the  name  of  Mejniin  '  off  the  page  of  earth  with  tears ; 

O  Fuzuli,  I  shall  likewise  fame  on  earth  through  dolour  gain. " 

Baki  of  Constantinople,  though  much  inferior  to  his 
contemporary  Fuzuli,  was  like  him  far  in  advance 
of  any  of  his  predecessors.  His  most  celebrated 
work,  an  elegy  on  Sultan  Suleyman  the  First,  is 
unsurpassed  in  its  style.  It  consists  of  a  number  of 
monorhythmic  stanzas,  each  closed  by  a  rhyming 
couplet ;  I  quote  the  first  two,  by  way  of  specimen. 
The  reader  is  addressed  in  the  opening  lines  : 

"  O  thou,  foot-tangled  in  the  mesh  of  fame  and  glory's  snare  I 

How  long  shall  last  the  lust  of  earthly  honour  falsely  fair  ? 

Aye  hold  in  mind  that  day  when  life's  sweet  spring  shall  pass  away; 

Alas  !  the  tulip-tinted  cheek  to  autumn  leaf  must  wear  ! 

And  thy  last  resting-place  must  be,  e'en  like  the  dregs',  the  dust ;  ' 

And  mid  the  bowl  of  cheer  must  fall  the  stone  Time's  hand  doth  bear.3 

He  is  a  man  in  sooth  whose  heart  is  as  the  mirror  clear  ; 

Man  art  thou  ?— why  then  doth  thy  breast  the  tiger's  fierceness  share? 

In  understanding's  eye  how  long  shall  heedless  slumber  bide  ? 

Will  not  war's  Lion-monarch's  lot  suffice  to  make  thee  ware  ? 

He,  Prince  of  Fortune's  cavaliers,  he,  to  whose  gallant  Rakhsh,* 

'  Mejnun  is  the  Orlando  Furioso  of  the  Moslem  East ;  driven  mad 
by  his  hopeless  passion  for  the  lovely  LeylT,  he  flies  into  the  desert, 
where  he  wanders  about  until  he  dies. 

'^  It  was  customary  to  throw  the  dregs  on  the  ground  after  drinking. 

3  A  pebble  thrown  into  a  beaker  was  a  signal  for  a  party  to  break 
up  ;  and  death,  as  coming  after  life,  is  sometimes  likened  to  the  end  of 
a  banquet  when  the  guests  are  gone  and  the  lights  put  out. 

^  Rakhsh.  ?>.,  Lightning,  is  the  name  of  the  charger  of  Rustem,  the 
hero  of  the  Shah-Nama,  and  the  Hercules  of  all  those  lands  where 
Persian  culture  prevails.  When  the  poet  here  styles  the  Sultan's  steed 
a  Rakhsh,  he,  of  course,  intends  the  reader  to  infer  that  the  rider  was 
a  Rustem. 


BAKI.  315 

What  time  he  caracoled  and  pranced,  cramped  was  earth's   tourney- 
square — - 
He,  to  the  lustre  of  whose  sword  the  Hunnish  paynim  bowed  — 
He,   whose   dread  sabre's  flash   hath  wrought   the  wildered  Frank's 
despair  ! 
Like  tender  rose-leaf,  gently  laid  he  in  the  dust  his  face ; 
And  earth,  the  guardian,  placed  him  like  a  jewel  in  his  case. 

In  truth  he  was  the  radiance  of  rank  high  and  glory  great, 

A  king,  Iskender-diademed,  of  Dara's  armied  state.  ^ 

Before  the  ground  beneath  his  feet  the  Sphere  bent  low  its  head; 

Earth's  shrine  of  adoration  was  the  dust  before  his  gate. 

The  smallest  of  his  gifts  the  meanest  beggar  made  a  prince  ; 

Exceeding  boon,  exceeding  bounteous  a  Potentate  ! 

The  court  of  glory  of  his  kingly  majesty  most  high 

Was  aye  the  centre  where  would  hope  of  sage  and  poet  wait. 

Although  he  yielded  to  eternal  Destiny's  command, 

A  king  was  he  in  might  as  Doom,  and  masterful  as  Fate  ! 

Weary  and  worn  by  yon  vile,  fickle  Sphere  deem  not  thou  him  ; 

Near  God  to  be,  did  he  his  earthly  glory  abdicate. 

What  wonder  if  our  eyes  no  more  liTe  and  the  world  behold. 

His  beauty  sheen  as  sun  and  moon  did  earth  irradiate  ! 

If  folk  upon  the  sun  do  gaze,  their  eyes  are  filled  with  tears ; 

For   while   they   look    yon   moon-bright    face    before    their    mind 
appears !" 


During  the  reign  of  Ahmed  I.  (160 3- 1607)  arose 
the  second  great  h'ght  of  old  Turkish  poetry.  This 
was  Nefi  of  Erzerum,  who  is  as  much  esteemed  for 
the  brilliancy  of  his  kasidas^  or  eulogies,  as  Fuzuli 
is  for  the  tenderness  of  his  ghazels.  Like  him,  he 
elaborated  a  style  for  himself,  which  found  many 
imitators,  the  most  successful  of  whom  was  SabrT. 
Unfortunately  for  himself,  Nefi  was  an  able  satirist ; 
his  scathing  pen  drew  down  upon  him  the  enmity  of 
certain  great  men,  who  prevailed  upon  Sultan  Murad 

*  Iskender  is  Alexander  the  Gieat ;  Dara,  Darius. 


3l6  OTTOMAN  LITERATURE, 

IV.  to  sanction  his  execution  (1635).  The  following 
is  the  opening  of  one  of  Nefl's  most  celebrated 
kasldas.  It  is  in  praise  of  Sultan  Murad  IV.,  at 
whose  command  the  poet  is  said  to  have  improvised 
it  as  he  stood  in  the  royal  presence,  a  story  which 
seems  a  little  doubtful  when  we  consider  that  the 
poem  is  one  of  the  most  elaborate  and  artful  in  the 
language.  It  is  a  good  specimen  of  Turkish  bacchana- 
lian verse,  and  touches  in  a  characteristic  fashion  on 
the  charms  of  the  spring  season,  a  theme  in  which  the 
Ottoman  poets  greatly  delight : 

*'  The  early  springtide  breezes  blow,  the  roses  bloom  at  dawn  of  day ; 
Oh  !  let   our  hearts   rejoice ;   cup-bearer,    fetch   the   bowl  of  Jem,  1 

pray.  ^ 
The  gladsome  time  of  May  is  here,  the  sweetly  scented  air  is  clear, 
The  earth  doth  Eden-like  appear,  each  nook  doth  Irem's  bower  display.' 
'Tis  e'en  the  rose's  stound  o'  glee,  the  season  of  hilarity. 
The  feast  of  lovers  fair  and  free,  this  joyous  epoch  l^right  and  gay. 
So  let  the  goblet  circle  fair,  be  all  the  taverns  emptied  bare. 
To  dance  let  ne'er  a  toper  spare,  what  while  the  minstrels  chant  the 

lay. 
A  season  this  when  day  and  night  the  tavern  eyes  the  garth  wi'  spite ; 
Though   drunk,    he   loved   a   winsome  wight,  excused  were  Mekka's 

guardian  gray. 
Oh  !    what  shall  now   the  hapless  do,    the  lovelorn,   the  bewildered 

crew  ? 
Let  beauties  fetch  the  bowl  anew,  to  spare  the  which  were  shame  to- 
day. 
Be  bowl  and  lovesome  charmer  near,  and  so  the  hour  will  shine  with 

cheer  ; 
And  he  indeed  will  wise  appear  who  maketh  most  of  mirth  and  play. 
That  toper's  joy  in  truth  were  whole  who,  drunken  and  elate  of  soul. 
With  one  hand  grasped  the  tulip  bowl,3  with  one  the  curling  locks  did 

fray. 

'  Jem,  or  Jemshld,  is  an  ancient  Persian  king,  celebrated  for  his  love 
of  splendour  and  festivity. 

°  Irem,  the  terrestial  Paradise. 

3  The  wine  makes  the  crystal  bowl  red  like  a  tulip. 


A   KASIDA   BY  NEF'i,  317 

Cup-bearer,  lay  those  airs  aside,  give  wine,  the  season  will  not  bide, 

Fill  up  the  jar  and  hanap  wide,  nor  let  the  beakers  empty  stay. 

Each  tender  branchlet   fresh  and  fine  hath  hent  in   hand   its  cup  of 

wine.^ 
Come   forth,  O  cypress-shape,^  and  shine ;  O  rosebud-lips,  make  glad 

the  way. 
Of  this  say  not  'tis  joy  or  pain  ;  grieve  not,  but  pass  the  bowl  again  ; 
Submit  to  Fate's  eternal  reign  ;  and  hand  the  wine  without  delay. 
For  wine  of  lovers  is  the  test,  of  hearts  the  bane,  of  souls  the  rest, 
The  Magian  elder's  treasure  blest, 3  th'  adorn  o'  th'  idol's  festal  tray.'* 
'Tis  wine  that  guides  the  wise  in  mind,   that  leadeth  lovers  joy  to 

find  ; 
It  blows    and  casts   to   every    wind,  nor  lets  griefs   dust  the  heart 

dismay. 
A  molten  fire,  the  wine  doth  flow  ;  in  crystal  cup,  a  tulip  glow : 
Elsewise  a   fragrant   rosebud  blow,  new-oped  and  sprent  with   dewy 

spray. 
-So  give  us  wine,  cup-bearer,  now,  the  bowl  of  Jem  and  Kay-Khusrau;5 
Fill  up  a  brimming  measure  thou,  let  all  distress  from  hearts  away. 
Yea,  we  are  lovers  fair  and  free,  for  all  that  thralls  of  wine  we  be, 
Lovelorn  and  stricken  sore  are  we,  be  kind  to  us  nor  say  us  nay. 
For  Allah's  sake  a  goblet  spare,  for  yonder  moon's  that  shineth  fair. 
That  I  with  reed  and  page  prepare  the  Monarch's  praises  to  assay. 
That    Sun  of  empire  and  command,  that  Champion-horseman  of  the 

land. 
As  blithe  as  Jem,  as  Hatim  bland, ^  whom  all  the  folk  extol  alway. 
That  Dread  of  Rum  7  and  Zanzibar,  who  rides  Time's  dappled  steed  in 

war, 
Who  hunts  the  foeman's  hordes  afar,  Behram,  Ferldun-fair  in  fray," 

^  I.e.,  the  buds. 

^  The  cypress  is  the  regular  emblem  for  a  graceful  figure. 

3  It  is  said  that  wine  used  to  be  sold  by  the  Magians  in  medieval 
Persia. 

-»  The  "idol"  is  the  beautiful  cup-bearer  whom  all  the  revellers 
adore. 

5  Kay-Khusrau  is  Cyrus ;  it  is  pronounced  Key  to  rhyme  with  /Aey. 

^  Hatim,  an  old  Arabian  chief,  famed  for  his  hospitality. 

7  Rum  is  a  general  name  for  the  lands  that  formed  the  Eastern  Roman, 
or  Byzantine,  Empire.  Rum  and  Zanzibar  stand  for  the  countries  in- 
habited by  the  while  and  black  races  of  mankind,  t.e.,  the  whole  world. 

^  Behram  and  Feridun  are  kings  of  old  Persia. 


3l8  OTTOMAN  LITERATURE. 

That  Monarch  of  the  Osman  race,  whose  noble  heart  and  soul  embrace 
Arabian  Omar's  saintly  grace  and  Persian  Perviz'  glorious  sway.  ^ 
Sultan  Murad,  of  fortune  bright,  who  crowns  doth  give  and  kingdoms 

smite ; 
Both  emperor  and  hero  hight,  the  Age's  Lord  with  Jem's  display." 


The  next  notable  poet  is  Nabi,  in  the  time  of  Sultans 
Ibrahim  (1640- 1 648)  and  Mohammed  IV.  (1648- 1687). 
About  this  time  the  Persian  Saib  was  introducing  in 
his  own  country  a  new  style  of  ghazel-writing,  marked 
by  a  philosophizing,  or  rather  a  moralizing,  tendency. 
Nabi  copied  him,  and  consequently  brought  this  new 
style  into  Turkish  literature.  The  greater  portion  of 
his  numerous  writings  are  in  a  didactic  strain  ;  and 
some  are  so  closely  moulded  on  his  Persian  model 
that  it  is  difficult  to  tell  that  they  are  intended  for 
Turkish.  He  had  many  followers,  among  whom 
Raghib  Pasha  and  Sami  are  perhaps  the  most  deser- 
ving of  mention. 

During  the  reign  of  Ahmed  III.  (i 703-1 730) 
flourished  Nedim,  the  greatest  of  all  the  poets  of  the 
old  Ottoman  school.  Nedim  has  a  style  that  is 
entirely  his  own ;  it  is  altogether  unlike  that  of  any 
of  his  predecessors,  whether  Persian  or  Turkish,  and 
no  one  has  ever  attempted  to  copy  it.  Through  his 
ghazels,  which  are  written  with  the  most  finished 
elegance  in  words  of  the  truest  harmony,  sings  a 
tone  of  sprightly  gaiety  and  joyous  lightheartedness, 
such  as  is  not  to  be  found  in  any  other  poet  of  his 
nation.     His  numerous  kasldas,  while  they  are  more 

'  Omar  is  the  second  Khalif ;  Khusrau  Perviz,  a  renowned  sovereign 
of  the  Sassanian  dynasty  of  Persia. 


nedim's  ghazels,  319 

graceful,  are  hardly  less  brilliant  than  those  of  Nef'i, 
and  are  at  the  same  time  in  truer  taste  and  less 
burdened  with  obscure  and  far-fetched  conceits. 
Little  is  known  regarding  his  life  save  that  he  resided 
at  Constantinople,  where  the  Grand  Vezir,  Ibrahim 
Pasha,  appointed  him  custodian  of  the  librar)^  which 
he  had  founded,  and  that  he  was  still  alive  in  1727. 
These  two  ghazels  are  by  Nedim  : 

"Love  distraught,  my  heart  and  soul  are  gone  for  nought  to  younglings 

fair, 
All  my  patience  and  endurance  spent  on  torn  and  shredcfed  spare. ^ 
Once  I  bared  her  lovely  bosom,  whereupon  did  calm  and  peace 
Forth  my  breast  take  flight,   but  how  I  wist  not,   nay,  nor  why  nor 

where. 
F'aynim  mole,  and  pcynim  tresses,  paynim  eyes,  I  cry  ye  grac^ ; 
All  her  cruel  beauty's  kingdom  forms  a  Heathenesse,  I  swear. 
Kisses  on  her  neck  and  kisses  on  her  bosom  promised  she ; 
Woe  is  me,  for  now  the  Paynim  rues  the  troth  she  pledged  while-ere.^ 
Such  the  winsome  grace  where  vvith  she  showed  her  locks  from  'neath 

her  fez. 
Whatsoever  wight  beheld  her  gazed  bewildered  then  and  there. 
'  Sorrowing  for  whom,'  thou  askest,  *  weeps  Nedim  so  passing  sore  ? ' 
Ruthless,  'tis  for  thee  that  all  men  weep  and  wail  in  drear  despair. 

O  my  wayward  fair,  who  thus  hath  reared  thee  sans  all  fear  to  be  ? 
Who  hath  tendered  ihee  that  tlius  thou  humblest  e'en  the  cypress-tree  ? 
Sweeter  than  all  perfumes,  brighter  than  all  dyes,  thy  dainty  frame; 
One  would  deem  some  fragrant  rose  lad  in  her  bosom  nurtured  thee. 
Thou  hast  donned  a  rose-cnwroughten  rich  brocade,  but  sore  I  fear 
Ltst  the  shadow  of  the  bruidered  rose's  thorn  make  thee  to  dree. 3 

^  I  use  the  old-fashioned  word  "  spare  "  to  replace  the  Eastern  giriban, 
whiih  means  the  opening  in  a  garment  from  the  neck,  which  enables  it 
to  be  put  off  and  on.  In  this  line  Nedim  means  to  say  that  the  only 
result  of  all  his  long-suffering  is  that  he  has  been  driven  to  tear  his  robe 
through  despair  at  the  conduct  of  his  beloved. 

*  He  calls  his  beloved  a  Paynim  because  she  has  as  little  mercy  as 
the  infidel  foe. 

3  So  delicate  is  her  skin. 


320  OTTOMAN  LITERATURE, 

Holding  in  one  hand  a  rose,  in  one  a  cup,  thou  earnest,  sweet ; 
Ah,  I  knew  not  which  of  these,  rose,  cup,  or  thee,  to  take  to  me. 
Lo,  there  springs  a  jetting  fountain  from  the  Stream  of  Life,  methought, 
"When  thou  madest  me  that  lovely  lissom  shape  o'  thine  to  see." 


What  may  be  called  the  classical  period  of  old 
Ottoman  literature  closes  with  Nedim ;  its  most 
brilliant  epoch  is  from  the  rise  of  Nefl  to  the  death 
of  NedIm,  or,  roughly,  from  the  accession  of  Ahmed  I. 
(1603)  to  the  deposition  of  Ahmed  III.  (1730). 
-  Turning  now  to  the  prose  literature,  which  we  have 
not  looked  at  since  the  days  of  the  Conqueror,  we 
find  the  Humayun-Nama,  an  elegant  translation  of 
the  Persian  Anvar-i-SuheylT,  made  by  All  Chelebi  for 
Suleyman  I.  A  little  later  Sa'd-ud-din  wrote  for  his 
pupil  Murad  III.  (i 574-1 595),  the  Taj-ut-Tevarikh,or 
"  Crown  of  Chronicles,"  a  history  of  the  reigns  of  the 
first  nine  Ottoman  Sultans.  This  work,  which  forms 
the  first  link  in  an  unbroken  chain  of  national  annals, 
is  admired  alike  for  its  historical  accuracy  and  for  the 
elaborate  grace  of  its  style.  As  several  extracts  from 
it  have  been  given  in  the  chapter  of  this  book  which 
tells  the  story  of  the  capture  of  Constantinople,  it  is 
unnecessary  to  offer  any  here.  The  work  is  written 
from  beginning  to  end  in  sej  or  rhymed  prose,  and  is 
embellished  with  numerous  pieces  of  poetry,  some- 
times productions  of  the  author  himself,  and  some- 
times quotations  from  the  Turkish  and  Persian  poets. 
Of  the  imperial  historiographers,  Sa'd-ud-dln's  suc- 
cessors, Na'Ima  calls  for  special  mention  ;  his  history, 
which  covers  the  period  between  1 591  and  1659,  is  in 
marked  contrast,  so  far  as  style  goes,  to  the  "  Crown 
of  Chronicles,"  being  remarkably  simple  and  direct. 


&HEYKH  GHALIB,  3^1 

and  at  the  same  time  very  vivid  and  picturesque. 
Evliya  Efendi,  the  Sir  John  Mandeville  of  the  Otto- 
mans, travelled  far  and  wide  through  the  three  con- 
tinents of  the  old  world,  and  then  came  home  to 
Constantinople,  where  he  wrote  the  story  of  his 
wanderings.  The  celebrated  Hajl  Khalifa,  sometimes 
called  Katib  Chelebi,  who  died  in  1685,  was  the 
author  of  a  large  number  of  valuable  works  on  history, 
chronology,  geography,  and  other  subjects.  In  1728 
appeared  the  first  book  printed  in  Turkey,  a  trans- 
lation of  an  Arabic  dictionary.  The  press  had  been 
founded  by  Nedlm's  patron,  the  Grand  Vezir  Ibrahim 
Pasha,  and  was  under  the  direction  of  an  Hungarian 
convert  to  Islam,  who  had  assumed  the  name  of 
Ibrahim. 

The  last  of  the  four  great  poets  of  the  old  Turkish 
school  was  Sheykh  Ghalib,  who  lived  and  worked  in 
the  time  of  Sultan  Selim  III.  (1789- 1807).  His 
Husn-u-Ashk,  "  Beauty  and  Love,"  an  allegorical 
romantic  poem,  is  one  of  the  finest  productions  of 
Ottoman  genius.  Like  FuzulT,  Nefl,  and  Nedim, 
Sheykh  Ghalib  successfully  originated  a  style  for 
himself,  which  is  distinct  from  that  of  any  previous 
writer. 

The  reign  of  Mahmud  II.  (1808- 1839)  was  a  tran- 
sition period  in  Turkish  history  ;  old  laws,  old  customs, 
old  institutions,  were  all  more  or  less  modified. 
Literature  did  not  remain  unaffected  by  the  spirit  of 
the  time  ;  it  was  then  that  appeared  the  first  indi- 
cations of  the  modern  or  European  school,  destined 
eventually  to  reign  supreme.  These  indications, 
however,  were  visible  in  prose  earlier  than  in  poetry. 


322  OTTOMAN  LITERATURE, 

Among  the  more  remarkable  poets  of  this  transition 
time  are  Wasif  who  attempted  to  write  verses  in  the 
spoken  language  of  Constantinople,  Izzet  MoUa,  and 
the  poetesses  Fitnet  and  Leyla. 

Some  thirty  years  ago  a  wonderful  change  began 
to  come  over  Turkish  literature,  and  this  change  has 
ever  since  been  growing  yearly  more  and  more  marked, 
altering   the  whole   tone   and   spirit,  as  well   as   the 
external  form  of  Ottoman  literary  work.     It  is  not 
too  much  to  say  that  a  poem  or  an  essay  by  a  great 
author  of  to-day  would  have  been  barely  comprehen- 
sible, certainly  not  appreciated,  by  a  writer  of  the  first 
quarter  of  the  present  century.    This  change  is  a  result 
of  the  study  of  the  French  language  and  literature, 
which  has  become  general  only  within  the  last  twenty 
years.     Marvellous,  indeed,  have  been  its  effects  ;  the 
ambition  of  the  modern  Turkish  aspirant  after  literary 
fame  is,  while  writing  gracefully,  to  write  naturally  ; 
the  old  se/  and  the  traditional  conceits  and  tricks  have 
vanished,  to  be  replaced  by  direct  and  simple  words, 
chosen  for  no  other  reason  than  that  they  best  convey 
the  author's  meaning.  The  drama,  a  form  of  literature 
previously  unknown  in  Turkey,  has  been  introduced, 
and  has  met  with  the  highest  favour  from  contem- 
porary writers.  In  poetry  likewise,  Western  forms  have 
well-nigh  superseded  the  monorhythmic  ghazels  and 
kasidas  of  the  olden  time.     A  corresponding  change 
has  taken  place  in   the   language  ;  many  old   words 
have  been  abandoned  as  useless,  while  many  others 
have  had  their  meaning  more  or  less  modified  to  meet 
the   requirements    of   newly    introduced    conceptions 
and    ideas,  for   which    no    expressions   exist    in    the 


MODERN   STYLE.  3^3 

language  as  it  formerly  stood.  Of  course  all  these 
changes  have  not  been  effected  without  opposition  ; 
many  Turks  of  the  old  school,  admirers  of  the  Persian 
style,  and  haters  of  all  things  Western,  opposed  them 
bitterly,  and  some  oppose  them  still  ;  but  the  battle 
has  virtually  been  fought,  the  victory  won,  and  for 
good  or  for  ill  Europe  has  conquered  Asia,  Paris  has 
replaced  Shiraz. 

Although  its  first  distinct  notes  may  be  heard  in 
the  writings  of  Akif  and  Reshid  Pashas,  it  is  to 
ShinasI  Efendi,  who  died  in  1 871,  more  than  to  any 
other  that  the  merit  of  accomplishing  this  great 
reform  is  due.  ShinasI  was  ably  supported  by  the 
talented  and  accomplished  Kemal  Bey, .  one  of  the 
most  gifted  men  of  letters  who  have  ev^er  appeared  in 
Turkey ;  and  the  poet  Ekrem  Bey,  who  holds  at  present 
the  position  of  Professor  of  Literature  at  the  Ecole 
Civile  of  Constantinople,  and  Hamid  Bey,  the  most 
illustrious  of  Turkish  dramatists,  deserve  to  be  men- 
tioned in  the  same  sentence  with  Kemal. 

The  tone  of  the  imaginative  literature  of  modern 
Turkey  is  very  tender  and  very  sad.  The  Ottoman 
poets  of  to-day  love  chiefly  to  dwell  upon  such  themes 
as  a  fading  flower,  or  a  girl  dying  of  decline  ;  and 
though  admiration  of  a  recent  French  school  may 
have  something  to  do  with  this,  the  fancy  forces  itself 
upon  us,  when  we  read  those  sweet  and  plaintive 
verses,  that  a  brave  but  gentle-hearted  people,  looking 
forward  to  its  future  without  fear,  but  without  hope, 
may  be  seeking,  perhaps  unconsciously,  to  derive 
what  sad  comfort  it  may  from  the  thought  that  all 
beautiful  life  must  end  in  dismal  death. 


XVI. 

THE  OTTOMAN   ADMINISTRATION. 

Supreme  head  alike  of  Church  and  State,  the 
Ottoman  Sultan  has  always  been  an  absolute  and 
irresponsible  sovereign,  free  to  act  as  he  pleases  so 
ong  as  he  observes  the  commandments  of  the  Koran. 
To  aid  him  in  the  government  of  the  Empire,  he 
delegates  his  authority  to  two  great  officers  :  the 
Grand  Vezir,  who  is  his  lieutenant  in  all  that  per- 
tains to  the  temporal  administration,  and  the  Muftl^ 
who  is  his  representative  in  those  matters  connected 
with  the  religion  and  the  law.  There  is  little  of 
interest  in  the  Turkish  Government  of  the  present 
day,  which  is  conducted  by  a  cabinet  of  ministers 
chosen  by  the  Sultan,  and  subject  to  his  constant 
control  and  interference,  and  we  shall  describe 
only  the  old  national  system  which  existed  down 
to  the  time  of  the  later  Europeanizing  reforms. 

At  first  the  Ottoman  monarchs  used  to  lead  their 
armies  to  battle,  and  personally  superintend  all  affairs 
of  State  ;  but  this  activity  gradually  subsided,  and, 
shutting  themselves  up  in  their  Seraglio,  they  left 
everything  in  the  hands  of  their  ministers  and 
favourites.     Such  at  least  was  generally  the  case,  but 


COMPANIONS  OF   THE  PEN.  327 

a  great  deal  depended,  and  still  depends,  upon  the 
personal  character  of  the  ruler  ;  Murad  IV.,  SelTm 
III.,  and  Mahmud  IL.  were  anything  but  nonentities 
in  the  Government,  and  the  present  Sultan  takes  an 
active  part  in  the  State. 

The  Ottoman  order  of  succession  to  the  throne 
differs  from  that  which  holds  in  Western  Europe. 
The  Sultan's  heir  is  his  oldest  male  relative,  not 
necessarily  his  eldest  son  ;  indeed  it  is  more  fre- 
quently a  brother  or  nephew  who  inherits  the  sove- 
reignty. In  old  times  it  was  customary  for  a  Sultan 
on  succeeding  to  the  throne  to  have  all  his  brothers 
put  to  death  ;  they  are  now  usually  kept  in  close 
seclusion  in  the  palace. 

The  functionaries  of  the  State  were  divided  into 
three  great  classes  :  those  of  the  Pen,  those  of  the 
Sword,  and  those  of  the  Law.  The  first  two  of  these 
were  under  the  Grand  Vezir,  the  third  was  under  the 
Mufti. 

The  Ashab-ul-Kalem,  or  CompanJons  of  the  Pen, 
as  they  were  called,  consisted  of  three  classes,  the 
first  of  which  was  styled  the  Rjjal.  or  Grandees,  and 
formed,  so  to  speak,  the  Ministry  of"  the  Empire. 
Three  great  officers,  the  Kyahya  Bey,  the  Rels 
Efendi,  and  the  Chawush  Bashi,  along  with  six  under- 
secretaries, made  up»rj^e  body  of  Rijal.  Of  ^  these, 
the  Kyahya  Bey  combined  the  functions  of  Minister 
of  War  and  Minister  of  the  Interior;  the  Rels  Efendi, 
whose  title  was  more  correctly  Reis-ul-Kuttab,  or 
Head  of  the  Scribes,  was  at  once  Chief  Secretary  of 
State  and  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  ;  while  the 
Chawush  Bashi  was  the  Marshal  of  the  Empire  and 


328  THE   OTTOMAN  ADMINISTRATION. 

the  Minister  of  Police.  The  six  under-secretaries 
were  the  Biyuk  Tezkereji  and  the  Kuchuk  Tezkereji, 
who  drew  up  the  orders  of  the  Grand  Vezir ;  the 
MektQbji,  or  First  Secretary  of  the  Grand  VezIr ;  the 
Teshrlfatji,  or  Grand  Master  of  Ceremonies  ;  the  Bey- 
Hkji,  or  Grand  Referendary;  and  the  Kyahya  Katibi, 
or  Secretary  of  the  Kyahya  Bey.  Among  the  innu- 
merable subordinate  officials  who  belonged  to  this 
class  of  the  Companions  of  the  Pen  were  two^  who 
deserve  special  mention  :  the  Vak'a-nuwis,  or  Histo- 
riographer ;  and  the  Terjuman-i  Divan-i  Humayun, 
or  Interpreter  of  the  Imperial  Divan.  To  the  histo- 
riographers we  owe  that  long  series  of  annals  which 
forms  so  marked  and  interesting  a  feature  in  Otto- 
man literature,  and  presents  us  with  so  complete  and 
vivid  an  account  of  the  fortunes  of  the  Empire.  The 
interpreters  of  the  Divan  were  at  first  Europeans  who 
had  embraced  Islam  ;  but  latterly  the  office  became 
a  sort  of  apanage  of  certain  noble  Greek  families  of 
Constantinople  ;  for  no  Turk  till  within  the  last  sixty 
years  ever  thought  of  learning  a  European  language. 

The  second  division  of  the  Companions  of  the  Pen 
was  that  of  the  Khojas,  or  Clerks.  These  officials 
were  subdivided  into  four  departments.  AH  matters 
connected  with  the  finances  were  entrusted  to  them. 
Among  the  functionaries  who  formed  the  firs]:  depart- 
ment were  the  Defterdar,  or  Minister  of  Finance,  and 
the  Nishanji  Bashi,  whose  duty  was  to  trace  the 
Tughra  or  cypher  of  the  Sultan  at  the  head  of  all  the" 
documents  presented  to  him  for  that  purpose.  This 
Tughra,  with  the  appearance  of  which  most  of  us  arc 
familiar  from  seeing  it  on  Turkish  coins  and  postage 


THE   sultan's    TUGHRA.  329 

stamps  or  on  pieces  of  embroidery  or  inlaid  mother- 
of-pearl  work,  contains,  ornamentally  written  as  a 
sort  of  monogram,  the  names  of  the  reigning  Sultan 
and  his  father,  together  with  the  title  Khan  and  the 
epithet  el-mnzaffar-ddimd,  or  "  victor  ever."  The 
Tughra  is  said  to  have  originated  in  this  way  :  Sultan 
Murad  I.  entered  into  a  treaty  with  the  Ragusans,  but 
when  the  document  was  brought  for  his  signature,  he, 


TUGHRA  OF  ABDUL-AZIZ. 

being  unable  to  write,  wetted  his  open  hand  with  ink 
and  pressed  it  on  the  paper.  The  first,  second,  and 
third  fingers  were  together,  but  the  thumb  and  fourth 
finger  were  apart.  Within  the  mark  thus  formed  the 
scribes  wrote  the  names  of  Murad  and  his  father,  the 
title  Khan,  and  the  "  victor  ever."  The  Tughra,  as 
we  now  have  it,  is  the  result  of  this  ;  the  three  long 
upright  lines  represent  Murad's  three  middle  fingers, 
the  rounded  lines  at  the  left  side  are  his  bent  thumb, 


330  THE   OTTOMAN  ADMINISTRATION, 

and  the  straight  ones  at  the  right  his  little  fingw. 
The  third  department  of  the  Khojas  consisted  of  tlie 
Intendants  who  formed  the  fourth  class  of  the 
Aghayan-i  Birun  of  the  Seraglio. 

The  third  division  of  the  Companions  of  the  Pen 
was  that  of  the  Aghas,  which  comprised,  besides  the 
six  Masters  of  the  Stirrup  and  the  Bostanji  Bashi,  or 
Chief  Gardener,  all  of  whom  were  attached  to  the  ser- 
vice of  the  Seraglio,  and  whose  duties  will  be  found  men- 
tioned in  the  chapter  describing  the  Imperial  Palace, 
the  following  officers  among  others  :  the  Topji  Bashi, 
or  Chief  Gunner,  who  was  the  Grand  Master  of  Artil- 
lery; the  Top  Arabaji  Bashi,  who  had  charge  of  the 
material  of  the  artillery  ;  the  Jebeji  Bashi,  who  was 
in  command  of  the  arsenal  and  armoury  ;  the  La- 
ghimji  Bashi,  who  was  chief  of  the  corps  of  sappers 
and  miners  ;  the  Khumbaraji  Bashi,  or  Chief  Bom- 
bardier ;  and  the  Mi'mar  Bashi,  or  Chief  Builder, 
who  was  the  Sultan's  architect. 

The  second  great  class  of  State  functionaries,  that 
of  the  Companions  of  the  Sword,  comprised  the 
governors  of  the  provinces  and  their  subordinates. 
The  Ottoman  Empire  was  divided  into  provinces 
styled  eyalets,  the  number  of  which  was  constantly 
varying,  owing  to  administrative  changes  and  the 
fortunes  of  war  ;  these  again  were  subdivided  into 
districts  termed  sanjak  or  liva,  both  words  meaning 
a  flag. I     The  eyalets  were  governed  by  Pashas  who 

^  The  Turl<ish  Empire  of  to-day  is  divided  into  a  number  of  province? 
termed  vilayets,  each  of  which  is  under  a  governor-general,  who  has  the 
title  of  Wall ;  these  vilayets  are  sulxlivided  into  districts  called  sanjaks, 
which  in  their  turn  are  parcelled  out  into  kazas  or  parishes.  The  adminis 
trator  of  a  sanjak  is  styled  a  Mutasarrif ;  that  of  a  kaza,  a  Kaimmakani. 


PROVINCIAL   GOVERNORS,  33I 

held  the  rank  of  Vezirs,  and  had  three  Tughs,  or 
horsetails,  as  their  standard. 

These  rulers  lived  in  almost  regal  splendour  in  their 
provincial  capitals,  and  often  shamefully  oppressed 
the  people  who  were  entrusted  to  their  charge.  The 
expenses  attendant  on  their  position  were  very  great ; 
they  had  to  make  handsome  presents  to  the  principal 
officers  of  the  Court  and  Government  at  Constanti- 
nople, not  only  at  the  time  of  their  appointment,  but 
every  now  and  again  in  order  to  secure  the  support  of 
pov/erful  friends  against  the  intrigues  which  their 
enemies  were  constantly  setting  on  foot,  and  the  com- 
plaints of  their  misgovernment  which  might  from 
time  to  time  reach  the  capital.  This,  added  to  their 
private  extravagance,  caused  them  to  be  constantly  in 
want  of  money,  and  of  course  their  subjects  had  to 
pay,  or  else  to  suffer  for  their  obstinacy.  If  matters 
became  so  bad  that  the  people  rose  in  revolt,  an  officer 
called  a  Mufettish,  or  Inquisitor,  was  despatched  from 
Constantinople  ;  but  he  rarely  did  any  good,  for  al- 
though the  Pasha  might  be  deposed  or  bowstrung,  and 
his  property  confiscated,  no  one  ever  thought  of  re- 
turning the  plundered  wealth  to  its  proper  owners,  and 
another  Pasha  was  sent  out  as  governor-general,  who 
in  all  probability  walked  in  the  steps  of  his  predecessor. 

The  livas  were  under  governers  who  bore  the  style 
of  Mir-i  Liva,  or  Sanjak  Beyi,  two  titles,  both  of 
which  mean  Flag  Lord.  This  name  arose  in  early 
times,  before  the  institution  of  eyalets,  when  the 
Ottoman  possessions  were  portioned  out  into  a  num- 
ber of  small  governments,  the  ruler  of  each  of  which 
received  on  his  appointment  a  Tugh  or  horsetail  stan- 


332  THE   OTTOMAN  ADMINISTRATION, 

dard  as  the  symbol  of  his  authority.  The  provincial 
governors  had  each  a  council  with  which  he  was 
bound  to  consult  on  all  matters  connected  with  his 
administration.  A  certain  number  of  the  members 
of  this  council  were  prominent  natives  of  the  district 
elected  by  the  notables  of  the  place.  The  object  of 
this  arrangement  was  of  course  to  giv^e  the  natives 
some  say  in  the  government  of  their  own  district,  and 
to  place  some  check  on  the  Pasha  should  he  incline 
to  act  unjustly  ;  but  these  native  councillors  were 
usually  as  corrupt  as  the  governor  himself,  and  quite 
as  ready  as  he  was  to  get  all  they  could  for  themselves 
out  of  their  fellow-citizens. 

Besides  these  governors,  and  independent  of  them, 
save  in  military  matters,  there  was  in  the  provinces  an 
ancient  hereditary  feudal  aristocracy.  These  were  old 
families,  the  ancestor  of  which,  as  a  recompense  for  ser- 
vices against  the  enemy,  had  received  a  portion  of  the 
land  which  he  had  helped  to  conquer.  This  territory, 
in  which  he  was  practically  supreme,  and  exercised  all 
signiorial  rights,  was  to  remain  in  the  possession  of  his 
representative  for  ever.  In  return  he  or  his  heir  was 
required  to  attend  with  a  certain  number  of  armed 
and  mounted  followers  whenever  summoned  by  the 
Sultan  to  take  part  in  any  military  expedition.  For 
several  centuries  these  feudal  soldiers  formed  a  large 
proportion  of  the  Ottoman  armies,  and  during  me- 
dieval times  they  were  at  least  a  match  for  any 
similar  troops  that  the  Christians  could  bring  against 
them  ;  but  when  the  nations  of  Europe  began  to  main- 
tain regular  standing  armies,  the  Turkish  feudal  militia, 
without  modern  arms   or  systematic  training,  was  no 


TIMARIOTES.  ^^^ 

longer  able  to  meet  them  upon  equal  terms.  In  con- 
formity with  one  of  the  conditions  on  which  they  held 
them,  these  Sipahls,  as  the  Turkish  feudal  nobles  were 
called,!  resided  on  their  estates,  where  they  occupied 
themselves  with  hunting  and  military  sports  ;  they 
never  left  their  old  castles  save  when  called  upon  by 
the  Padishah  to  muster  outside  the  capital  for  a  march 
on  Vienna,  or  Tebriz.  They  took  no  share  in  the 
government  of  the  province  where  their  domains  lay, 
but  in  these  domains  they  lorded  it  at  their  pleasure, 
and  neither  Pasha  nor  Sanjak  P>cyi  had  any  jurisdiction 
there.  As  we  have  seen,  these  feudal  troops  gradually 
became  useless  ;  the  Sipahls  obstinately  opposed  all 
attempts  at  reform,  so  that  their  abolition  became 
necessary.  This  was  accomplished  by  Mahmud  II., 
who,  as  they  no  longer  rendered  any  effective  service 
in  the  field,  confiscated  their  properties  and  abolished 
their  rights.  Thus  the  present  century  has  witnessed 
the  close  of  two  ancient  feudal  systems,  which  had 
come  down  intact  and  unchanged  through  many  cen- 
turies :  that  of  Turkey  and  that  of  Japan. 

At  the  head  of  the  third  great  class  of  State  func- 
tionaries, that  of  the  Ulema,  or  Doctors  of  the 
Law,  stood  the  Sheykh-ul-Islam-  or  Elder  of  Islam, 
the  most  important  of  whose  duties  was  to  interpret 

*  European  writers  generally  call  them  Timariotes,  a  name  derived 
from  the  Turkish  word  Timar,  which  means  a  fief.  Larger  fiefs,  as- 
sessed at  a  higher  value,  were  termed  Ziyamets.  The  number  of  soldiers 
which  a  Sipahl,  or  Turkish  knight,  was  bound  to  bring  with  him  to  a 
campaign  depended  on  the  value  at  which  his  fief  was  assessed.  The 
name  Sipahl  was  also  applied  to  an  old  corps  of  regular  cavalry,  which 
has  frequently  been  mentioned  in  this  volume  in  connexion  with  the 
Janissaries  ;  those  Sipahis  were  quite  distinct  from  the  feudal  knights. 


334  ^^^^   OTTOMAN  ADMINISTRATION. 

the  sacred  Law  by  declaring  whether  any  proposed 
action  was  in  accordance  with  the  precepts  of  the 
Koran.  No  war  could  be  begun,  no  peace  could  be 
concluded,  no  public  matter  of  any  kind  could  be 
gone  on  with  until  the  Sheykh-ul-Islam  had  been 
consulted  and  had  pronounced  the  projected  under- 
taking lawful.  Immediately  under  the  Sheykh-ul- 
Islam,  were  two  great  legal  officers  called  the  Kazl- 
ul-'Askers  of  Rumelia  and  Anatolia.  The  title  Kazl- 
ul-'Asker,  which  means  Judge  of  the  Army,  was  origin- 
ally conferred  on  a  magistrate  whom  the  Sultan  used, 
in  early  times,  to  take  along  with  him  when  he  went 
on  a  campaign,  in  order  to  settle  any  disputes  which 
might  arise  among  the  soldiers.  As  time  went  on, 
two  of  these  magistrates  were  appointed,  and  for  the 
sake  of  distinction  the  territorial  titles  were  added  ; 
but  the  Rumelian  or  European  judge  (who  represented 
the  original  military  magistrate)  always  took  prece- 
dence of  his  Anatolian  or  Asiatic  colleague.  Next 
came  the  Istambol  Kadisi  or  Judge  of  Constantinople; 
then  the  Mollas  or  Magistrates  of  the  two  sacred  cities 
Mekka  and  Medina  ;  then  the  Mollas  of  the  "  Four 
Burghs,"  ie,,  of  Adrianople,  Brusa,  Cairo,  and  Damas- 
cus ;  and  then  the  Makhrej  Mollalari  or  Mollas  As- 
pirant, including  the  Magistrates  of  Galata,  Scutari, 
Eyyub  (all  suburbs  of  Constantinople),  Jerusalem, 
Smyrna,  Aleppo,  Yeni  Shehr,  and  Salonica.  This 
division  embraced,  besides  these,  some  of  the  'Ulema 
attached  to  the  service  of  the  Seraglio,  and  an  officer 
called  the  Nakib-ul-Eshraf  or  Representative  of  the 
Nobles,  ie.y  of  the  Shcrifs  or  recognized  descendants 
of  the  Prophet  Muhammed,  in  the  Turkish  Empire. 


THE   DIVAN,  335 

All  these  functionaries  belonged  to  the  first  rank  of 
legal  dignitaries  ;  the  second  consisted  of  the  Mollas 
or  Magistrates  of  certain  other  of  the  more  important 
cities  ;  the  third  of  a  number  of  officials  termed 
Mufettishes  or  Inquisitors,  whose  duty  was  to  see  that 
the  legacies  bequeathed  to  mosques  and  other  religious 
or  charitable  institutions  were  properly  administered. 
The  fourth  rank  was  that  of  the  Kadis  or  ordinary 
judges  of  the  less  important  towns  ;  and  the  fifth  and 
lowest  that  of  the  Naibs  or  Judge-substitutes. 

The  Divan,  as  the  Council  of  the  Empire  was  called, 
consisted  at  first  of  only  three  VezTrs,  but  was  gradu- 
ally increased  to  nine.  These  ministers,  who  were 
styled  the  Kubba  VezTrleri  or  Cupola  Vezirs,  because 
the  room  in  which  they  carried  on  their  deliberations 
was  roofed  by  a  cupola,  were  superseded  during  the 
reign  of  Sultan  Ahmed  III.,  on  account  of  the  rivalry 
which  had  sprung  up  between  them  ;  and  a  new  Divan 
was  instituted.  This  was  composed  of  eight  members ; 
the  Grand  Vezir,  who  was  President  of  the  Council  ; 
the  Kapudan  Pasha  or  Grand  Admiral ;  the  two 
KazI-ul-'Askers  ;  the  three  Defterdars  or  chiefs  of  the 
financial  department  ;  and  the  Nishanji  or  Tracer  of 
the  Sultan's  cypher.  By  the  end  of  last  century  this 
Divan,  which  was  held  in  the  hall  specially  set  apart 
for  the  purpose  in  the  second  court  of  the  Seraglio, 
had  become  a  mere  tribunal  for  the  redress  of  private 
grievances,  and  met  only  once  in  six  weeks  or  so, 
while  the  real  business  of  the  State  was  transacted  in 
councils  called  Mushavaras,  which  were  held  at  the 
residence  of  the  Grand  VezIr,  and  at  which  all  the 
heads  of  departments  assisted. 


336  THE   OTTOMAN  ADMINISTRATION. 

The  fleet  was  under  the  command  of  the  Kapudan 
Pasha  or  Grand  Admiral,  one  of  the  greatest  officers 
of  the  Empire.  The  islands  of  the  Grecian  Archi- 
pelago were  under  his  jurisdiction,  and  every  summer 
he  used  to  go  with  the  fleet  into  the  Mediterranean 
on  a  tour  of  inspection,  and  to  receive  his  rents  from 
the  officers  to  whom  he  had  farmed  his  government. 

There  was  no  similar  officer  in  command  of  the 
army  ;  the  Grand  Vezir  being,  under  the  Sultan,  the 
generalissimo  of  the  forces.  He  usually  took  com- 
mand of  an  army  when  marching  against  an  enemy, 
but  he  was  always  assisted  and  sometimes  replaced 
by  other  Pashas  of  the  highest  rank.  Each  division 
of  the  army  had  its  own  general  ;  thus  the  Janissaries 
had  their  Agha,  but  he  did  not  interfere  with  the 
cavalry  or  artillery  or  with  any  branch  of  the  infantry 
except  his  own. 

Formerly,  when  the  Ottoman  Government  declared 
war  against  a  foreign  state,  it  used  to  seize  the  am- 
bassador of  that  state  at  Constantinople  and  shut  him 
up  in  the  State  prison  of  the  Seven  Towers.  Its 
object  in  so  doing  was  not  only  to  emphasize  its 
hostility  against  the  enemy,  but  to  prevent  the  latter 
from  learning  any  of  those  particulars  concerning 
the  condition  of  the  Turkish  Empire  which  the 
minister  would  most  probably  be  able  to  aflbrd,  as 
well  as  to  hold  a  hostage  for  the  good  treatment  of 
any  Ottoman  subjects  who  might  chance  to  be  in  the 
territories  of  that  State  against  which  the  war  was  to 
be  waged. 

All  the  great  functionaries  of  the  Empire  were  dis- 
tinguished by  the  magnificence  and  variety  of  their 


IN   THE  HAREM. 


OFFICIAL  ROBES. 


339 


State  costumes.  The  Grand  Vezir  wore  a  long  robe 
of  white  satin  trimmed  with  sable,  and  a  curious  head- 
dress, some  five  and  twenty  inches  in  height,  called  a 
kilavi,  which  was  made  of  white  muslin  and  shaped 
like  a  sugar-loaf  with  the  top  cut  off ;  a  band  of  gold 
lace  four  inches  wide  fell  across  this  from  right  to  left. 
The  dress  of  the  Grand  Admiral  was  the  same,  save 
that  his  robe  was  of  green  instead  of  white  satin. 
This  was  the  costume  of  all  the  Pashas  of  the 
first  rank,  those  of  three  Tughs,  the  Grand  VezIr 
alone  wearing  white  satin.  Similarly  the  Sheykh-ul- 
Islam  had  a  robe  of  white  cloth,  while  all  the  other 
chiefs  of  the  Ulema  wore  green  cloth.  Their  turban, 
which  was  termed  'urf,  was  egg-shaped,  and  was  white, 
excepting  in  the  case  of  the  Naklb-ul-Eshraf,  when  it 
was  green.  Unless  when  travelling  or  on  a  campaign, 
none  of  these  high  officials  carried  a  sword  ;  but  they 
all  (except  the  legal  dignitaries  who  were  unarmedj 
had  a  jewel-hilted  dagger  stuck  in  the  girdle  which 
they  wore  under  the  fur-trimmed  outer  robe. 

Of  all  this  gorgeous  apparel  little  or  nothing  is  now 
visible  at  Stambol.  His  Majesty,  Abd-ul-HamId  Khan^ 
may  be  seen  driving  to  mosque  in  a  plain  landau,  and 
habited  in  a  black  frock-coat  and  trousers,  with  a  red 
fez  on  his  head.  Save  for*the  fez,  he  and  his  ministers 
might  be  mistaken  for  Frenchmen  of  a  sedate  order. 
Old  Turkey,  with  its  pomp,  its  power,  its  gorgeous 
ceremony,  is  gone  for  ever  ;  and  the  time  has  not  yet 
come  for  New  Turkey  to  feel  comfortable  in  its  tight 
European  clothes. 


XVII. 

"THE   SICK  MAN." 
(1812-1880.) 

The  present  century  has  witnessed  many  stirring 
events  in  and  around  the  Ottoman  Empire,  but  they 
have  nearly  all  been  marked  by  a  novel  characteristic. 
In  former  ages  Turkey  fought  for  herself,  to  win  lands  or 
to  repel  invaders.  In  the  present  day  other  nations 
fight  for  Turkey,  not  for  her  sake,  but  for  their  own. 
The  City  on  the  Bosphorus  has  become  a  bone  of 
contention  to  the  Powers  of  Europe  :  one  of  them  is 
determined  to  possess  it,  and  the  others,  afraid  to 
claim  it  for  themselves,  have  resolved  that  no  one 
shall  touch  it.  All  fears  of  the  ancient  military  pres- 
tige of  the  Ottomans  have  passed  away,  and  what 
anxiety  there  is  depends,  not  upon  their  strength,  but 
their  weakness.  Turkey  is  a  weight  in  the  European 
equilibrium,  and  the  danger  is  that  she  may  slip  off 
the  scale  and  overturn  the  balance.  How  far  this 
estimate  of  the  feebleness  of  the  Sultan's  resources  is 
true  may  perhaps  be  questioned.  The  Turks  have  never 
been  honestly  beaten  in  the  present  century.  In  the 
Russian  war  of  1809-12  they  were  but  slightly 
worsted  ;  in  the  Greek  war  of  1822-8  they  were  at 


THE    TURKISH  ARMY.  341 

a  disadvantage   on  account  of  a  military  revolution, 
but  would  never  have  given  in  without  the  pressure  of 
three  Great  Powers  ;  in  the  war  of  1828-9,  Russia  won 
by  a  coup  de  theatre,  and   Mahmud  was  surprised  into 
surrender  on  false  information  ;  in  the  Crimean  war 
the  Turks   drove  the  Russians   from  before    Silistria 
and  over  the  Danube  before  the  Allies  came  up,  and 
afterwards  were  never  given  a  chance  ;  in  the  latest  war 
it  has  been  boldly  asserted  that  the  Russians  won  by 
roubles,  more  than  by  powder  and  shot,  and  that  the 
Turks  would  have  been  fully  their  match  had  their 
officers  been  superior  to  bribes.      Be  this  as  it  may,  it 
is  well  to  be  cautious  in   prejudging  the  issue  as  be- 
tween Russia  and  Turkey.     With  good  officers  and 
subsidies  for  arms,  the  splendid  material  of  which  the 
Ottoman  rank   and   file  is  composed  might   possibly 
be    backed     against    the     multitudinous    hordes     of 
Russia.     Asia  Minor  is  the  recruiting-ground  of  the 
Turk,  and   is  still  almost  untouched   by  the  invader. 
What  Turkey   might   be   able  to   accomplish  in   the 
event  of  another  Russian  war,  with  voluntary  aid  from 
abroad,  and  fair  play,  must  remain  a  problem  ;  but  so 
long  as  Russia  remains  what  she  is,  the  odds  are  not 
perhaps  so  very  heavy  on  the  Tsar. 

Nevertheless  it  has  become  almost  an  axiom  in 
politics  to  regard  Turkey  as  a  more  or  less  defenceless 
State,  and  most  of  the  wars  and  negotiations  which 
have  centred  in  the  Bosphorus  have  been  conducted 
on  the  assumption  that  she  is  a  necessary  evil, 
necessary  to  be  kept  where  she  is,  but  perfectly  hope- 
less in  herself,  and  incapable  of  development  or  reform. 
Certainly   she    is    not   what  is   called    a   progressive 


342 

nation,  though  the  changes  which  have  taken  place 
in    her   social,   intellectual,   and  administrative  ideas 
within  the    last  sixty  years    are,   for    a    Mohamme- 
dan country,  almost    revolutionary.     Christians    and 
foreigners  who  now  visit  Constantinople  can  hardly 
believe   the  condition  of  society  when  the   Russian 
ambassador  was  thrown  into  the  castle  of  the  Seven 
Towers;    when    no   Turkish    minister    would    deign 
to   rise  to   a   foreign  representative  ;  and   when  the 
Sultan   would  as  soon  think  of  visiting  a  kennel  as 
touching  the  hand  or  entering  the  house  of  a  Giaour. 
Now  a  Turk  of  rank  or  position  is  very  much  like 
any  one   else,  often    cultivated,   generally  well-bred, 
and,  whatever  he  may  feel  as  a  Moslem,  scrupulously 
tolerant  and  polite  to  "  infidels  "  of  every  description. 
This  change,  however,  applies  to  the  minority  :  the 
mass  of  the  people  remain  much  what  they  were.    Ex- 
perience and  frequent  intercourse  has   perhaps  made 
them   more  tolerant  or  indifferent,  but  they  are  still 
Moslems,  and,  as  such,  practically  stationary.     The  ad- 
ministration remains  corrupt,  and  will  remain  so  until 
Turkey  is  permitted  to  enjoy  a  long  period  of  immunity 
from  external  dangers,  and  to  devote  the  energies  of 
her  best  sons,  not  to  playing  off  several  jealous  Powers 
against  one  another,  but  to  developing  her  own  re- 
sources and  thoroughly  revising  her  executive  system. 
That  period,  however,  is  a  very  uncertain  speculation. 
No  one,  perhaps,  not  even  Lord  Stratford  de  Redcliffe, 
has  ever  believed  that  Turkey  could  be  saved  entirely 
from  within  ;   and  the  Powers  have  always  acted  on 
the  principle  that  somebody  must  serve  as  a  dyke  be- 
tween Russia  and  the   Bosphorus,  and  that  Turkey, 


MAHMUD  IL  343 

being  there,  had  better  be  maintained  in  her  position. 
The  "  Sick  Man  "  of  the  morbid  mind  of  Nicholas 
must  be  galvanized  into  sufficient  vitality  to  sit  up 
and  pretend  to  be  well.  The  policy  of  the  European 
Powers  towards  the  Porte  has  been  uniformly  selfish  ; 
and  the  policy  has  reacted  upon  themselves :  for  the 
Turks  are  keen-witted,  and  will  do  nothing  for  those 
who  will  do  nothing  for  them.  We  can  hardly  expect 
Turkey  to  don  every  European  habit  we  cut  for  her, 
when  we  never  couch  a  lance  beside  her  except  for 
our  own  benefit. 

The  nineteenth  century  has  seen  a  process  of 
gradual  dismemberment  which  bids  fair  to  deprive 
the  Sultan  of  his  last  foothold  in  Europe.  When 
Mahmud  II.  ascended  the  throne  in  1808,  a  mere 
child,  he  was  at  first  the  puppet  of  the  mutinous 
Janissaries,  who  had  slaughtered  his  predecessors,  and 
only  spared  him  because  for  awhile  he  was  actually 
the  last  survivor  of  the  august  race  of  Othman.  He 
began  his  reign  in  a  war  with  Russia,  and  the  open 
hostilities  of  the  Tsar  were  overshadowed  by  even  more 
menacing  intrigues  and  plots  of  partition  put  forward 
by  Napoleon.  The  Treaty  of  Bucharest  (18 12)  termi- 
nated the  first,  and  helped  to  put  an  end  to  the  second 
danger.  External  enemies  now  gave  place  to  the  foes 
of  his  own  household.  Great  pashas  consolidated  their 
power  in  distant  provinces,  and  ruled  as  kings  in 
defiance  of  the  Sultan's  authority  ;  local  squires  or 
Derebeys  held  a  sort  of  feudal  state  in  their  districts, 
and  set  the  Sultan's  officers  at  naught.  Two  men 
especially  threatened  the  empire  with  division  :  one 
was  Mohammed  All  (Mehemet  Ali),who  made  Egypt 


344  "  ^^^   ^^^^  MAN.'* 

virtually  independent  in  the  second  decade  of  the 
century,  and  so  firmly  established  his  power  that  he 
was  able  to  transmit  it  to  his  descendants,  one  of 
whom  still  reigns  in  name  in  the  capital  of  the 
Mamliiks  ;  the  other  was  All  Pasha  of  Janina,  who 
held  his  own  in  Albania,  with  barbaric  splendour 
and  barbarous  cruelty,  until  he  was  slain  by  the  Sultan's 
troops  in  1820.  To  make  head  against  such  oppo- 
nents required  a  strong  and  disciplined  army,  and  the 
support  of  the  people.  But  the  people  liked  their 
local  lords,  and  hated  the  corrupt  government  of  the 
Sultan's  officers  ;  and  the  army  was  at  once  untrust- 
worthy in  the  field  and  mutinous  in  quarters.  Mah- 
mud,  who  was  possessed  of  an  iron  will,  considerable 
political  sagacity,  and  invincible  patience,  quietly  set 
to  work  to  remedy  these  evils.  It  took  him  twenty 
years  to  mature  his  plans,  but  in  1826  he  dealt  the 
blow.  People  living  in  Pera,  looking  across  the 
Golden  Horn,  one  June  morning  perceived  two 
columns  of  smoke  ascending  to  the  skies  over  the 
minarets  of  Stambol.  The  Janissaries  had  mutinied, 
but  the  Sultan  was  ready  for  them  ;  and  the  smoke 
announced  that  their  barracks  had  been  blown  up. 
The  famous  corps,  which  had  long  survived  only  to 
tarnish  its  ancient  renown  by  deeds  of  cowardice, 
venality,  and  turbulency,  was  exterminated.  The 
sword,  the  bowstring,  and  the  exile's  galley  finished  the 
work,  and  MahmQd  was  free  to  form  a  new  army,  dis- 
ciplined after  the  manner  of  European  troops,  and  fit 
to  be  trusted  with  the  honour  of  the  old  Ottoman 
name.  The  Sultan  himself  studied  French  books  of 
tactics,  drilled  his  men  in  person,  mounted  like  any 


THE   GREEK  REBELLION.  345 

dragoon,  with  long  English  stirrups  and  a  trooper's 
saddle.  He  worked  hard,  but  fate  was  against  him. 
He  deprived  himself  of  his  old  army,  and  had  not 
yet  collected  a  new  one,  just  at  the  moment  when  any 
sort  of  army  would  have  been  serviceable. 

The  danger  that  menaced  him  sprang  from  Homer. 
But  for  the  associations  with  great  deeds  and  noble 
words  which  the  very  name  of  Hellas  awakens,  no 
sane  man  assuredly  would  have  meddled  in  the  Greek 
"  War  of  Independence."  The  impulse  which  stirred 
up  the  insurrection  was  not  so  much  the  sublime  pas- 
sion of  freedom  as  the  suggestion  of  Russian  agents 
and  that  delight  in  noisy  excitement  which  is 
the  heritage  of  the  Greek.  Whatever  the  cause, 
philanthropists,  scholars,  and  enthusiasts,  in  England 
and  France,  fancied  that  in  the  revolutionary 
movement,  which  was  partly  the  effect  of  the  ground- 
swell  raised  in  France  a  quarter  of  a  century  before, 
they  could  trace  the  echoes  of  Thermopylae  and  Mara- 
thon ;  the  songs  of  the  klephts  were  sung  in  the  same 
tongue — somewhat  degraded — that  Sophocles  and 
Aeschylus  had  spoken  ;  and  a  general,  natural,  and 
very  creditable  feeling  spread  over  Western  Europe 
in  favour  of  the  oppressed  Greeks.  Poets  like  Byron 
flung  themselves  into  the  fray  in  a  spirit  of  patriotic 
antiquarianism ;  soldiers  like  Church,  who  loved  adven- 
ture, and  habitually  espoused  the  cause  of  the  weak 
against  the  strong,  cast  away  the  scabbard  ;  and  a 
crowd  of  knights-errant  of  various  ranks,  nations,  and 
motives,  joined  in  the  "  War  of  Independence."  Wise 
heads  as  well  as  brave  hearts  took  up  the  cause  of  the 
Greeks.     France  would  have   been  pleased  to  see  a 


346  "  THE   SICK  MAN  J' 

prince  of  her  royal  race  on  the  throne  of  Athens  ;  and 
England,  as  represented  by  George  Canning  the 
Foreign  Secretary,  had  adopted  the  policy  of  giving 
struggling  nationalities  fair  play.  The  Continental 
doctrine,  rigorously  upheld  by  Prince  Metternich,  con- 
sisted in  a  jealous  police  to  be  exercised  by  the  Great 
Powers  in  the  maintenance  of  the  established  order  of 
things  as  formulated  in  the  Treaty  of  181 5,  and  in  the 
stern  repression  of  all  "Jacobinical"  movements.  Mr. 
Canning  detested  the  policy  of  the  Holy  Alliance,  and 
saw  in  the  Greek  rebellion  no  Jacobinical  tendency, but 
simply  the  desire  of  an  oppressed  Christian  people  to 
cast  off  the  Turkish  yoke.  He  strove  to  effect  a  reason- 
able compromise  between  the  belligerents,  and  suc- 
ceeded in  inducing  Russia,  and  afterwards  France,  to 
join  England  in  forcing  terms  upon  the  Sultan  (Treaty 
of  London,  1827).  Mahmud  remained  obdurate,  how- 
ever ;  he  naturally  saw  no  reason  why,  when  on  the 
whole  he  was  winning,  he  should  voluntarily  deprive 
himself  of  his  Greek  provinces.  An  accidental  en- 
counter between  the  Turkish  fleet  and  the  Allies  in  the 
harbour  of  Navarino  (Oct.  1827)  ended  in  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  former  ;  and  the  peaceful,  if  somewhat 
domineering,  mediation  of  the  Three  Powers  was  ex- 
changed for  a  naval  blockade,  the  landing  of  a  French 
force  in  the  Morea,  whence  they  speedily  expelled  Mah- 
mud's  Egyptian  contingent,  and,  finally,  a  Russo- 
Turkish  war  (1828-9).  This  was  what  Russia  had  been 
wanting  all  along.  The  rupture  had  been  staved  off  at 
a  heavy  sacrifice  by  the  Treaty  of  Akkerman  in  1826, 
because  the  Sultan's  army  was  then  in  no  state  for  a 
great  war.     The  alliance  of  the  Three  Powers  in  1827 


NAVARINO 

Battle  Plan 


(|]>  UN£  or  BATTLE  SHIPS 
[^    DOt/BLC EniGATM 

O  sfAfcif  rfffCATes 
C|l>    coRvcrre 

O-     SCHdONCft 

►     emi:  BRIGS 

*'     TRANSPORTS 


1  /J«<I 

2  Genoa 

3  Albion 

4  Dartmouth 

5  Cambrian 

6  Glasgow 

8  i?^J<? 

9  Musquito 
lo  Brisk 

It  Philomel 
12  Hind 

(  Tender) 


Sirine 
Scipion 
Trident 
Brcslau 
A  rmide 
Daphne 
A  ley  one 


6-7  Schooners. 


'RUSSIAN 


1  Asoff 

2  Ezekiel 

3  Hanhoudd 

4  Alexander 

5  Provounoy 

6  Helena 

7  Const antine 

8  Castor 

1-4  ^a/f//^  ^>47>f 
5-y  Frigates 


THE   RUSSIAN   WAR   OF   1 828-9.  349 

seemed  to  forbid  separate  action.  But  Mr.  Canning 
was  now  dead,  and  Lord  Aberdeen's  presence  at 
the  Foreign  Office  gave  Russia  free  scope  for  action. 
The  result  was  Diebitsch's  daring  march  over  the 
Balkan,  and  the  humiliation  of  Mahmud  in  the  Treaty 
of  Adrianople  (1829),  in  presence  of  a  Russian  army 
which  could  hardly  have  exceeded  15,000  men.  At 
the  point  of  the  sword  the  Sultan  was  forced  to  con- 
cede what  all  the  arguments  of  ambassadors,  and  even 
the  fatal  catastrophe  at  Navarino,  had  failed  to  extort. 
Greece  was  made  free,  and  in  1832  her  boundaries 
were  extended  to  very  nearly  their  present  limits. 
Prince  Leopold  refused  the  crown,  and  the  Bavarian 
Otho,  as  King  of  the  Hellenes,  taught  the  people  that 
a  constitutional  government  by  Christian  foreigners 
may  be  almost  as  corrupt  and  exasperating  as  even 
the  rule  of  a  Turkish  pasha. 

The  severance  of  Greece  was  a  sore  blow  to 
Mahmud's  hopes  ;  yet,  even  now,  had  he  been  allowed 
ten  years  of  tranquillity  he  might  have  been  able 
to  carry  out  the  reforming  policy  upon  which  his 
heart  was  set.  Such  however  was  not  to  be  his 
fortune.  Shorn  of  his  fleet  by  the  Allies,  weakened 
in  arms  and  prestige  by  the  Russian  war,  he  became 
the  natural  prey  of  his  powerful  vassal  the  Viceroy 
of  Egypt.  Mohammed  All  pushed  his  forces  across 
Syria  and  even  threatened  the  Bosphorus  ;  the  timely 
interposition  of  Russia  (duly  recompensed  in  the 
Treaty  of  Hunkiar  Iskelesi,  1833)  saved  Constanti- 
nople. This  treaty  was  a  rude  surprise  to  the 
Western  Powers,  for  it  gave  Russia  the  exclusive 
right  of  way  through  the  Dardanelles  :  but  they  took 


350 

time  before  they  ventured  to  assert  themselves. 
France  was  on  the  side  of  Mohammed  All ;  and 
England,  under  the  Whig  administrations  of  Grey 
and  Melbourne,  was  too  much  harassed  at  home  to 
retain  a  free  hand  for  foreign  affairs.  Palmerston 
admitted  that  he  had  delayed  too  long  before  sup- 
porting the  Sultan,  but  at  length  the  English  fleet 
sailed  for  the  Levant,  Acre  was  taken,  and  Moham- 
med All,  by  the  Treaty  of  1841,  was  confined 
to  his  Egyptian  possessions,  under  the  suzerainty 
of  the  Sultan,  the  integrity  and  independence  of 
whose  empire  were  now  placed  formally  under  the 
guarantee  of  the  Great  Powers.  The  Treaty  of  1841 
was  a  new  and  vital  departure :  Turkey  was  for  the 
first  time  placed  in  a  state  of  tutelage,  but  how  far 
the  protection  of  the  Great  Powers  has  benefited  her 
must  be  considered  in  the  light  of  more  recent  events- 

Meanwhile  Mahmud  had  died  in  1839,  when  his 
empire  seemed  doomed  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  his 
dangerous  vassal.  Had  he  lived,  the  fourteen  years 
of  peace  which  followed  might  have  been  turned  to 
immense  account  ;  his  masterful  will  might  have 
reformed  the  whole  system  of  administration.  But 
his  son  and  successor,  Abd-ul-Mejid,  while  possessed 
of  many  amiable  and  loveable  qualities,  was  timorous 
and  infirm  of  purpose.  Whatever  good  was  done 
in  the  interval  of  tranquillity  which  filled  the  fifth 
decade  of  the  century  was  principally  the  work  of 
th?  great  statesman  who  then  held  the  post  of  British 
Ambassador  at  the  Porte. 

Sir  Stratford  Canning  began  his  diplomatic  career 
in   1807,  when  he  was  secretary  to  a  mission  sent  to 


SIR   STRATFORD   CANNING,  35 1 

Copenhagen  to  effect  a  reconciliation  with  the  Danes 
after  the  impounding  of  their  fleet.  At  the  age  of 
twenty-three  he  was  Minister  Plenipotentiary  at  Con- 
stantinople, and  in  18 12,  without  aid  or  advice  from 
his  Government,  but  wholly  of  his  own  motion  and  by 
his  own  diplomatic  skill,  he  brought  about  the  Treaty 
of  Bucharest,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  released  the 
Russian  army  of  the  Danube  just  in  time  to  attack 
Napoleon  on  his  disastrous  retreat  from  Moscow. 
He  subsequently  served  in  Switzerland,  was  present 
at  the  Congress  of  Vienna,  held  the  post  of  Minister 
to  the  United  States,  and  returning  to  Turkey  in 
1826  took  a  principal  part  in  effecting  the  freedom 
of  Greece,  and  especially  in  securing  her  an  adequate 
and  defensible  boundary.  At  the  beginning  of  1842 
he  resumed  his  former  post  at  Constantinople, 
and  began  that  series  of  reforms  which  nothing 
could  have  carried  but  the  supreme  influence  which 
gained  him  the  name  of  t/ie  Great  ElcJii,  or  Am- 
bassador par  excellence.  Long  experience  of  the 
Turks,  personal  friendship  with  the  Sultan,  and  the 
support  of  the  young  Turkish  party,  who  had  learnt 
something  of  Western  civilization,  were  among  the 
causes  of  his  success  ;  but  the  mainspring  lay  in  his 
personal  character.  Truthful  and  straightforward  in 
all  his  ways,  he  never  condescended  to  the  tricks  of 
diplomacy,  and  the  Turks  soon  began  to  perceive 
that  what  Canning  spoke  was  the  truth.  Gifted 
moreover  with  a  sedate  gravity  which  gave  dignity 
and  importance  to  the  smallest  negotiations,— and 
which  was  the  more  valuable  because  men  knew 
that  beneath  the  calm    and  polished  surface  lay  an 


352 

impetuous  passionate  spirit,  impatient  of  restraint, — 
the  manner  of  the  Great  Elchi  was  full  of  charm  and 
persuasion.  His  refined  and  intellectual  countenance 
was  the  index  to  his  courteous  and  chivalrous 
nature.  When  circumstances  so  required,  none 
could  be  more  urbane  ;  but  when  he  scented  de- 
ception or  trickery,  the  man's  fiery  nature  blazed  up, 
and  in  his  anger  he  was  terrible  —  few  dared  to 
withstand  him.  The  Turkish  ministers  and  the 
Sultan  himself  bowed  themselves  down  before  his 
righteous  indignation.  By  force  of  character,  by  a 
certain  admirable  violence,  necessary  in  dealing  with 
dilatory  and  prevaricating  people,  by  a  kingly  grace 
and  courtesy  which  stamped  him  a  gentleman  of  the 
true  sort,  but  above  all  by  a  manly  unswerving 
honesty  and  straightforwardness,  Stratford  Canning 
acquired  that  extraordinary  influence  which  no 
Christian  has  exercised  before  or  since  over  the 
princes  and  statesmen  of  the  Ottoman  Empire. 

In  1842  he  began  his  long  struggle  with  Turkish 
corruption.  Reshid  Pasha,  the  most  enlightened  of 
the  statesmen  of  the  Porte,  had  in  1839  induced  the 
Sultan  to  promulgate  a  sort  of  Turkish  Magna 
Charta,  called  the  Hatti-Sherlf  of  Gidhane,  (or  the 
Tanzimat,)  whereby  many  of  the  anomalies,  cor- 
ruptions, and  disabilities  of  the  administrative  and 
judicial  system,  especially  in  regard  to  the  Christian 
rayas,  were  abolished — on  paper.  The  reform  was 
premature  and  was  followed  by  the  fall  of  Reshid 
and  a  strong  reaction  in  favour  of  the  old  Turkish 
system.  It  was  Canning's  design  to  overturn  the 
reactionaries   and  restore   Reshid,  and   in  this,  after 


TURKISH  REFORMS.  353 

three  or  four  years,  he  succeeded.  Step  by  step  he 
obtained  the  dismissal  of  fanatical  and  ignorant 
officials,  and  replaced  them  by  men  of  Reshid's  way 
of  thinking.  With  the  aid  of  the  liberal  party 
in  the  Divan,  he  carried  reform  after  reform — none 
very  sweeping,  for  the  time  had  not  yet  come,  and 
there  was  no  Mahmud  to  enforce  a  complete  change, 
— but  each  essential  to  the  well-being  of  the  Sultan's 
Christian  subjects.  His  object  was  to  reform 
Turkey  from  within,  by  removing  those  glaring  in- 
justices which  marked  so  many  branches  of  the  execu- 
tive Government.  He  did  not  work  for  the  Christians 
merely  because  they  were  Christians,  but  because 
they  had  the  least  measure  of  justice,  and  so  required 
more  support  to  bring  them  up  to  the  level  of  their 
Moslem  neighbours.  Equal  citizenship  for  all  was 
his  policy.  With  this  view  he  wrung  from  the 
Sultan,  after  a  herculean  struggle,  in  1844,  the 
promise  that  thenceforward  no  one  who  apostatized 
from  Islam  and  became  a  Christian  should,  as  here- 
tofore, be  executed ;  and  that  the  Christian  religion 
should  suffer  no  molestation  in  the  Ottoman  do- 
minions. The  concession  was  the  more  noteworthy 
since  it  repealed  what  was  believed  to  be  a  part  of 
the  sacred  law  of  the  Koran.  This  was  followed  up 
by  a  formal  abolition  of  torture,  by  the  repeal  of 
obnoxious  taxes,  notably  the  poll-tax  on  non-Musul- 
mans  which  belonged  to  the  ancient  constitution 
of  Islam,  by  the  admission  of  Christian  evidence 
in  Moslem  law  courts,  and  by  various  other  im. 
provements,  which  were  all  eventually  summarized 
and   completed    in    the    famous   edict— the     Hatti- 


354 

Humayun  of  1856,  which  forms  part  of  the  Treaty  of 
Paris.  An  immense  deal  remained  to  be  done,  but 
it  was  impossible  to  drive  the  Turks  at  a  fast  pace, 
and  Canning  had  to  be  content  with  what  he  could 
get.  So  long  as  he  was  at  his  post  reforms  accumu- 
lated, and  his  vigilant  eye  watched  every  quarter 
of  the  Ottoman  Empire  to  see  where  offences  were 
and  from  whence  they  came,  and  to  bring  condign 
punishment  on  the  offender.  No  pasha  was  safe, 
even  so  far  off  as  Baghdad,  if  a  complaint  against  him 
reached  the  ear  of  the  Great  Elchi.  His  power  was 
unique,  and  he  used  it  for  no  selfish  or  ambitious 
end :  his  arm  was  stretched  forth  in  the  cause  of 
right  and  justice  alone.^ 

Then,  in  the  midst  of  this  stage  of  gradual  reforma- 
tion, came  two  shocks  from  without.  The  first  passed 
off  without  more  than  a  temporary  interruption  of 
progress.  It  happened  in  1849  that  sundry  refugees 
from  Hungary  and  Poland,  where  the  mid-century 
revolutions  were  in  course  of  sanguinary  suppression 
by  Austria  and  Russia,  sought  asylum  in  the  dominions 
of  the  Sultan.  Among  them  were  Kossuth,  Bern, 
Dembinski,  and  other  well-known  leaders.  The  two 
emperors  demanded  their  extradition,  which  was 
another  word  for  their  slaughter;  but  the  Turks 
declared  that  it  was  contrary  to  the  Mohammedan 
principle  of  hospitality  to  give  up  strangers  to  their 
pursuers,  and  Sir  Stratford  Canning  supported  them 
in  their  honourable  resistance.  Austria  and  Russia 
broke  off  relations  with  Turkey,  and  matters  looked 

»  "Life  of  Lord  Stratford  de  Redcliffe,"  by  S.  Lane-Poole,  vol.  ii., 
ch.  xvii. 


THE  HOLY  PLACES. 


355 


serious ;  but  the  appearance  of  the  English  and 
French  fleets  at  the  entrance  of  the  Hellespont  showed 
that  there  were  more  Powers  to  be  reckoned  with 
than  Turkey  ;  the  crisis  passed,  and  the  refugees 
were  saved.  The  fame  of  the  Great  Elchi  and  the 
honour  of  the  Sultan  never  stood  higher  than  when 
they  thus  upheld  the  sacred  right  of  asylum. 

The  second  interruption  was  more  serious.  It 
began  in  a  mere  trifle.  There  were  monks  of  different 
sorts  at  Jerusalem, — Latin  Church,  Greek  Church,  and 
Armenian  Church, — and  the  two  former  were  per- 
petually quarrelling  over  ridiculous  details  of  ritual 
at  the  Holy  Places  where  their  common  Master 
suffered  and  was  buried.  France  protected  the  Latin 
variety  of  monk,  Russia  the  Greek ;  and  whether,  as 
has  been  asserted,  the  Emperor  Louis  Napoleon 
thought  it  necessary  to  distract  his  subjects  with  a 
warlike  diversion,  or  whether  it  merely  happened  that 
the  quarrels  of  the  monks  came  to  a  crisis  just  then, 
it  is  certain  that  in  1852  the  French  grew  exceedingly 
imperious  in  their  demands,  and  Turkey  was  at  her 
wits'  ends  to  satisfy  both  complainants.  With  the  help 
of  Stratford  Canning,  who  had  now  been  raised  to 
the  peerage  as  Viscount  Stratford  de  Redclifle,  the  dis- 
pute was  happily  arranged  in  April  1853  :  but  Russia 
then  insisted  on  an  additional  Convention  which  would 
have  given  her  a  protectorate  over  all  the  12,000,000 
subjects  of  the  Sultan  who  professed  the  Greek  or 
"  Orthodox  "  religion.  This  could  not  be  admitted, 
and  though  for  many  months  the  statesmen  of 
Europe  vied  with  one  another  in  evolving  schemes 
of  pacification,  it  was  evident  from  the  first  that  the 


356 

half-crazy  Tsar  would  not  be  satisfied  with  less  than 
war.  The  Russians  marched  into  Wallachia,  without 
a  tittle  of  excuse,  in  June  1853  :  but  the  Turks,  guided 
by  Lord  Stratford,  contented  themselves  with  a  pro- 
test, and  negotiations  were  continued  at  Vienna  and 
elsewhere.  England  and  France  sent  their  fleets 
through  the  Dardanelles  in  October  ;  but  still  it  was 
not  precisely  war.  But  when,  after  distinct  warning 
from  the  Western  Powers,  Russia  entered  the  Turkish 
harbour  of  Sinope,  and  sent  a  Turkish  fleet  to  the 
bottom,  and  massacred  the  helpless  drowning  crews 
almost  under  the  eyes  of  the  English  and  French 
Admirals,  who  were  then  stationed  in  the  Bos- 
phorus,  the  fighting  spirit  of  John  Bull  fired  up, 
and  the  Crimean  War  ensued  (March  28,  1854). 

The  war  was  made  with  the  object  of  compelling 
Russia  to  withdraw  her  army  from  the  Principalities. 
But  the  allied  forces  of  France  and  England,  under 
Marshal  St.  Arnaud  and  Lord  Raglan,  had  not  arrived 
at  the  scene  of  operations  when  the  menaces  of 
Austria  and  the  magnificent  pluck  displayed  by  the 
Turks,  under  the  leadership  of  Butler  and  Nasmyth, 
in  the  defence  of  Silistria,  forced  the  Russians  to  fall , 
back.  They  crossed  the  Danube  in  June  pursued  by 
the  Turks,  and  the  object  of  the  war  was  practically 
attained. 

But  there  was  a  general  feeling  that  Russia  would 
not  be  reduced  to  her  proper  position  until  the  frown- 
ing forts  of  Sevastopol  in  the  Crimea  had  been  razed. 
Accordingly  in  September  the  Allies  embarked  on 
one  of  the  craziest  expeditions  that  any  army  ever 
attempted.   Ignorant  of  the  country,  the  fortifications. 


THE    CRIMEAN    WAR.  357 

and  the  strength  of  the  enemy,  they  landed  on  a  deso- 
late peninsula  with  a  comparatively  small  force,  no 
base,  and  scanty  means  of  provisioning.  They  found 
the  enemy  ready  for  them  in  superior  numbers  and 
in  a  strong  position  on  the  heights  behind  the  Alma 
river,  and  (the  French  having  missed  their  part  of 
the  manoeuvre)  the  English  fought  their  way  up  the 
hill  in  face  of  a  tremendous  cannonade,  and  sent  the 
Russians  flying  (20  Sept.).  Had  the  Allies  been 
strong  enough  to  push  on  in  pursuit,  Sevastopol  might 
have  been  taken  by  assault  the  next  day  ;  but  inade- 
quate numbers,  the  care  of  the  wounded,  the  caution  of 
some,  and  the  jealousy  of  others,  obliged  Lord  Raglan 
to  pause  ;  and,  feeling  the  paramount  need  of  a 
harbour  for  commissariat,  the  Allies  made  a  flank 
march,  seized  the  port  of  Balaklava,  and  prepared  to 
lay  siege  to  Sevastopol  from  the  south  side.  The 
Russians  made  several  diversions.  One  was  an 
attack  on  the  right  flank  of  the  British  force  on 
18  October,  which  provoked  the  splendid  and  effec- 
tual onslaught  of  the  Heavies  under  General  Scar- 
lett, and  the  equally  brilliant  but  mistaken  charge  of 
the  Light  Brigade,  which  has  been  the  theme  of  poets 
and  patriots  for  a  generation.  Those  who,  like  the 
writer,  have  seen  with  their  own  eyes  the  fatal  "  Valley 
of  Death "  can  alone  realize  in  any  degree  the 
"  mouth  of  hell  "  into  which,  in  perfect  calm  and  with 
well-dressed  ranks,  rode  "  the  noble  Six  Hundred." 
The  terrible  loss  suffered  on  that  famous  day  left  the 
English  less  able  to  meet  fresh  emergencies  :  but  on 
5  November,  surprised  in  a  fog,  8,000  Englishmen,  con- 
sisting of  the  Guards  and  the  20th  Regiment,  kept  a 


358  "  THE   SICK  MAN  J' 

Russian  army  of  40,000  men  at  bay  for  several  hours 
at  one  spot  on  the  slopes  of  Inkerman,  until  the 
French  came  up  and  helped  them  to  drive  the  enemy 
back  in  confusion. 

Meanwhile  the  siege  of  Sevastopol  progressed 
slowly.  The  defence,  conducted  by  Todleben,  was 
alike  skilful  and  indefatigable.  The  attack  was  over- 
deliberate,  and,  on  the  part  of  the  French  at  least, 
hampered  by  interference  from  home.  Several  as- 
saults in  the  spring  and  summer  of  1855  failed  to  over- 
come the  resistance  of  the  enemy.  One  French 
general  had  died  ;  the  second  resigned  ;  Lord  Raglan- 
borne  down  with  anxiety,  and  a  victim  to  popular 
indignation,  which  in  Carthaginian  fashion  seldom 
spares  unsuccessful  generals,  succumbed  to  care  and 
overstrain  in  June  1855.  It  was  not  till  September 
that  the  Malakov  earthwork  fell  to  the  vigorous 
assault  of  the  French,  and  the  city  of  Sevastopol  was 
at  length  occupied  by  the  Allies. 

Instead-  of  taking  advantage  of  this  success,  and 
pushing  Russia  back  to  her  ancient  limits  at  the 
Caucasus  and  the  Dniester,  and  reviving  the  kingdom 
of  Poland  as  a  watchtower  to  the  west,  the  Allies 
made  peace,  and  the  Treaty  of  Paris  was  signed  in 
March  1856.  A  trifling  rectification  of  the  frontier 
was  made,  but  the  main  provisions  of  the  Treaty  were 
the  guarantee  of  the  independence  and  integrity  of 
the  Ottoman  Empire  by  the  contracting  Powers,  the 
abolition  of  the  Russian  protectorate  over  the  Danubian 
principalities  and  Serbia,  the  neutralization  and  opening 
of  the  Black  Sea  to  ships  of  commerce  of  all  nations, 
and  the  closing  of  the  Bosphorus  and  Dardanelles  to 


THE    TREATY   OF  PARIS,  359 

foreign  ships  of  war  while  the  Porte  should  be  at 
peace.  The  Powers  pledged  themselves  not  to  meddle 
in  the  internal  affairs  of  Turkey,  and  the  Sultan 
promised  reforms  in  his  administration  and  better 
treatment  of  his  Christian  subjects.  The  principles 
of  this  reformation  were  enunciated  in  the  celebrated 
Haiti- Humayun^  which  had  been  promulgated  in  the 
previous  February  :  "  brave  words  "  and  little  more. 
The  vital  part  of  the  Treaty,  concerning  the  neutrality 
of  the  Black  Sea,  was  repudiated  by  the  Tsar  in  1870, 
when  the  Franco-German  war  had  deprived  England 
of  the  only  ally  who  would  have  joined  her  in  opposing 
him  ;  and  in  January  187 1  Mr.  Gladstone's  govern- 
ment consented  to  this  shameful  breach  of  good  faith. 
The  Black  Sea  is  once  more  a  Russian  lake,  and 
Sevastopol  was  taken  in  vain. 

The  Treaty  of  Paris  left  Turkey  practically  intact. 
It  did  not  restore  her  stolen  provinces,  but  it  caused 
her  no  fresh  losses.  The  time,  however,  was  not  far 
off  when  dismemberment  would  become  inevitable. 
Lord  Stratford  had  long  seen  that  nothing  but  honest 
and  sweeping  reforms  could  save  the  Ottoman  Empire  : 
but  he  left  the  Porte  in  1858,  and  no  one  who  suc- 
ceeded him  was  strong  enough  to  enforce  those 
changes  which  were  essential  to  its  preservation. 
One  by  one  the  provinces  approached  independence. 
Moldavia  and  Wallachia,  united  in  1858,  became 
thenceforward  practically  an  independent  state :  and 
the  acquisition  of  a  HohenzoUern  as  hereditary  prince 
in  1866  gave  Rumania  (as  the  provinces  are  now 
called)  a  place  in  European  combinations.  Troubles 
broke    out    in     the     Lebanon    in     i860,    a    French 


360  "  THE   SICK  MAN.'* 

army  was  dispatched  to  restore  order,  and  in  the 
adjustment  of  rival  claims  an  opportunity  was  afforded 
to  Lord  Dufferin  for  displaying  those  diplomatic 
talents  for  which  he  is  renowned.  In  1861  the  Sultan 
Abd-ul-MejId  died,  and  with  him  passed  away  the 
hope  of  regenerating  Turkey.  His  brother  and 
successor  Abd-ul-AzTz  was  an  ignorant  bigot,  whose 
extravagance  brought  his  country  to  avowed  insol- 
vency (1875),  and  thus  deprived  her  of  that  sympathy 
which  is  seldom  given  to  the  impecunious.  The  only 
remarkable  thing  he  did  was  to  travel.  No  Ottoman 
Sultan  had  ever  before  left  his  own  dominions,  except 
on  the  war  path,  but  Abd-ul-Aziz  ventured  even  as  far 
as  London,  without,  however,  awakening  any  enthu- 
siasm on  the  part  of  his  Allies.  In  1876  he  was 
deposed,  and — found  dead.  How  he  came  by  his 
death  is  a  matter  of  doubt,  but  his  end  is  said  to  have 
turned  the  brain  of  his  successor  Murad  V.,  a  son  of 
Abd-ul-MejTd,  who  after  three  months  was  removed 
as  an  imbecile,  and  succeeded  by  his  brother  the 
reigning  Sultan  Abd-ul-Hamld. 

This  unfortunate  prince,  who  is  believed  to  be 
endowed  with  some  sagacity,  has  been  compelled 
to  witness  the  most  serious  encroachments  upon 
his  empire  which  have  yet  taken  place.  Before 
his  accession  there  had  been  a  revolt  among 
the  Christians  of  the  north.  Herzegovina  rose  in 
1874-5,  and  the  massacres  and  brutalities  which  too 
often  characterize  Turkish  police-measures  ensued. 
Prompted  by  Russia,  Bulgaria  attempted  to  shake  off 
the  yoke  in  1876,  and  some  terrible  deeds  were 
perpetrated  by  the  Turkish  soldiery  in  suppressing  the 


THE  RUSSIAN    WAR   OF   1877-8.  361 

revolt.  Exaggerated  as  they  were  by  the  newspapers, 
the  "  Bulgarian  Atrocities  "  at  Batak  were  nevertheless 
bad  enough  to  rouse  a  tempest  of  righteous  indignation 
in  England, even  without  the  adroit  aid  of  an  inflamma- 
tory pamphlet  written  by  Mr.  Gladstone.  Serbia  and 
Montenegro  now  joined  the  rebellion,  and  the  Porte 
had  to  exert  her  strength  to  meet  her  numerous  foes. 
The  Great  Powers  used  their  efforts  at  mediation  in 
vain.  A  Conference  at  Constantinople  (Jan.  1877) 
was  met  by  a  rejection  of  its  proposals,  and  by  a 
melodramatic  promulgation  of  an  Ottoman  Constitu- 
tion, of  which  little  more  has  been  heard  ;  and  Russia, 
separating  from  the  European  concert,  took  the  law 
into  her  own  hands  and  declared  war.  (April  1877.) 
Whether  the  collective  action  of  the  Powers  might 
have  attained  the  desired  end  without  hostilities,  and 
whether  the  Tsar  was  really  driven  onward  by  the 
uncontrollable  Slav  sympathies  of  his  subjects,  or  was 
actuated  by  mere  motives  of  aggrandisement,  are 
questions  which  must  be  left  unsolved.  The  war 
began,  and  the  Turks  at  first  held  their  own,  especi- 
ally in  Asia,  where  they  won  the  battle  of  Kizil-tepe, 
and  drove  the  Russians  back  from  Kars.  In  Europe, 
no  attempt  was  made  to  oppose  the  passage  of  the 
Danube,  and  the  Russians  occupied  Tirnova  and  Nico- 
polis,  and  even  sent  a  flying  detachment  under  General 
Gurko  over  the  Balkan.  But  the  great  feature  of  the 
war  was  the  defence  of  Plevna  by  Othman  Pasha.  For 
five  months  the  Russians  and  Rumanians  vainly 
laid  siege  to  the  fortress  ;  twice  they  were  totally 
defeated  in  the  field  ;  till  at  last  in  December  starva- 
tion, aided   it  is   said  by  bribing  the  commanders  of 


362 

the  reinforcements  who  were  bringing  stores,  did  the 
work  which  no  artillery  could  accomplish,  and  Othman 
Pasha,  with  his  army  of  32,000  heroes,  made  a  despe- 
rate attempt  to  break  through  the  investing  lines,  and 
was  compelled  to  surrender.  The  taking  of  Plevna 
cost  Russia  50,000  men. 

The  end  was  not  far  off.  After  Plevna  had  fallen, 
and  Mukhtar  had  been  driven  back  in  Armenia  with 
the  loss  of  Kars,  General  Gurko  again  crossed  the 
Balkan  in  January,  1878.  He  cut  his  upward  steps  in 
the  ice,  and  literally  slid  down  the  other  side.  Sofia 
was  occupied,  and,  after  some  gallant  fighting  in  the 
Shipka  Pass,  Radetski  forced  his  way  through,  and 
preliminaries  of  peace  were  signed  (as  in  1829)  at  the 
point  of  the  bayonet  at  Adrianople.  A  Treaty  was 
then  concluded  at  San  Stefano,  3  March,  in  the  pre- 
sence of  the  Russian  army,  which  was  actually  en- 
camped on  the  shore  of  the  Sea  of  Marmora  ;  but  the 
conditions  were  so  damaging  to  Turkey,  that  Lord 
Beaconsfield  interposed,  and  the  Treaty  of  San  Stefano 
was  abrogated  by  that  of  Berlin,  June  1878.  By  this 
Treaty,  which  records  the  partial  dismemberment  of 
Turkey  with  the  consent  of  Europe,  in  spite  of  all  the 
pledges  of  1856,  Servia,  Montenegro,  and  Rumania 
were  declared  independent ;  the  State  of  Bulgaria  was 
created,  in  two  divisions,  one  of  which  was  to  be 
autonomous,  the  other  governed  by  the  Porte ;  and 
Thessaly  was  apportioned  to  Greece.  Russia  regained 
the  strip  of  Bessarabia  which  had  been  taken  from 
her  in  1856,  and  retained  her  conquests  in  Asia — Kars, 
Batum,  and  Ardahan.  In  return  for  her  easy  compli- 
ance   in    these    arrangements,  England   accepted    a 


''PEACE    WITH  HONOUR.''  363 

peculiar  position  in  relation  to  Turkey :  she  an- 
nounced a  protectorate  over  the  Asiatic  dominions  of 
the  Sultan  (though  to  this  day  no  one  appears  to  under- 
stand what  are  the  duties  and  rights  involved  in  the 
compact),  and,  in  order  to  have  a  convenient  station 
whence  to  observe  events  in  the  East,  she  took  posses- 
sion of  the  island  of  Cyprus,  which  she  still  holds  in 
fee  of  the  Sultan,  to  whom  she  pays  tribute.  Lord 
Beaconsfield  (at  least  ostensibly)  took  credit  for  these 
acquisitions,  and  considered  that  the  Treaty  of  Berlin 
with  its  accessory  conventions  formed  a  satisfactory 
embodiment  of  "  Peace  with  Honour." 

Thus  was  Turkey  gradually  reduced  to  its  present 
restricted  dimensions.  In  its  old  extent,  when  the 
Porte  ruled  not  merely  the  narrow  territory  now 
called  Turkey  in  Europe,  but  Greece,  Bulgaria  and 
Eastern  Rumelia,  Rumania,  Serbia,  Bosnia,  and  Her- 
zegovina, with  the  Crimea  and  a  portion  of  Southern 
Russia  ;  Asia  Minor  to  the  borders  of  Persia;  Egypt, 
Syria,  Tripoli,  Tunis,  Algiers,  and  numerous  islands 
in  the  Mediterranean,  —  not  counting  the  vast  but 
mainly  desert  tract  of  Arabia — the  total  population 
(at  the  present  time)  would  be  over  fifty  millions, 
and  the  square  mileage  over  two  millions,  or  nearly 
twice  Europe  without  Russia.  One  by  one  her 
provinces  have  been  taken  away.  Algiers  and  Tunis 
have  been  incorporated  with  France,  and  thus  175,000 
square  miles  and  five  millions  of  inhabitants  have 
transferred  their  allegiance.  Egypt  is  practically  inde- 
pendent, and  this  means  a  loss  of  500,000  miles  and 
over  six  millions  of  inhabitants.  Asiatic  Turkey 
alone   has   suffered   comparatively  little   diminution. 


3^4 

This  forms  the  bulk  of  her  present  dominions,  and 
comprises  about  680,000  square  miles,  and  over  six- 
teen millions  of  population.  In  Europe  her  losses 
have  been  almost  as  severe  as  in  Africa,  where  Tripoli 
alone  remains  to  her.  Serbia  and  Bosnia  are  "ad- 
ministered" by  Austria,  and  thereby  nearly  40,000 
miles  and  three  and  a  half  millions  of  people  have 
become  Austrian  subjects.  Wallachia  and  Moldavia 
are  united  in  the  independent  kingdom  of  Rumania, 
diminishing  the  extent  of  Turkey  by  46,000  miles  and 
over  five  millions  of  inhabitants.  Bulgaria  is  a  depen- 
dent state,  over  which  the  Porte  has  no  real  control, 
and  Eastern  Rumelia  has  lately  de  facto  become  part 
of  Bulgaria,  and  the  two  contain  nearly  40,000  square 
miles,  and  three  millions  of  inhabitants.  The  king- 
dom of  Greece  with  its  25,000  miles  and  two  millions 
of  population  has  long  been  separated  from  its  parent 
In  Europe  where  the  Turkish  territory  once  extended 
to  230,000  square  miles,  with  a  population  of  nearly 
twenty  millions,  it  now  reaches  only  the  total  of 
&6,ooo  miles  and  four  and  a  half  millions :  it  has  lost 
nearly  three-fourths  of  its  land,  and  about  the  same 
proportion  of  its  people. 

Whether  what  has  happened  since  the  famous 
Congress  sat  upon  the  state  of  Turkey  in  solemn 
conclave  at  Berlin  in  1878  can  be  held  to  justify  the 
motto  of  "  Peace  with  Honour "  may  be  decided 
by  the  reader  on  the  evidence  of  facts  or  the 
strength  of  political  conviction.  One  thing  seems 
clear,  that,  rightly  or  wrongly,  in  supporting  the 
Christian  provinces  against  their  sovereign,  the 
Powers   at    Berlin    sounded    the    knell    of   Turkish 


CONCLUSION.  365 

domination  in  Europe.  Asiatic  Turkey,  under  the 
aegis  of  England's  mysterious  "  protectorate,"  may 
still  enjoy  its  ancient  barbaric  existence,  menaced 
perhaps  by  Russians  in  the  north-east,  by  canals  in 
the  south,  and  by  advancing  civilization  everywhere : 
but  in  Europe,  the  Turk  will  mount  guard  over  the 
Bosphorus,  and  sit  in  the  seat  of  the  Caesars  only  so 
long  as  Europe  requires  him  there.  Another  Power 
is  quite  ready  to  take  his  place,  and  even  in  England 
the  impossibility  of  permitting  a  Tsar  to  reign  at 
Constantinople  is  no  longer  quite  an  undisputed  axiom. 
But  whether,  with  all  our  prejudice  against  the  "  un- 
speakable "  Turk,  the  Moslem  is  a  worse  ruler  than 
the  Russian,  and  ought  necessarily  to  give  way  to  the 
advancing  tide  of  Slavonic  "  civilization,"  is  a  question 
too  large  for  this  little  book.  At  the  best  it  is  a 
choice  of  evils. 

There  are  some  who  believe  in  a  great  Moham- 
medan revival,  with  the  Sultan- Khalifat  the  head, — a 
second  epoch  of  Saracen  prowess,  and  a  return  to  the 
good  days  when  Turks  were  simple,  sober,  honest  men, 
who  fought  like  lions.  There  is  plenty  of  such  stuff 
in  the  people  still :  but  where  are  their  leaders  ?  Till 
Carlyle's  great  man  comes,  the  hero  who  can  lead  a 
nation  back  to  paths  of  valour  and  righteousness, 
to  dream  of  the  regeneration  of  Turkey  is  but  a  boot- 
less speculation. 


THE  END.  , 


INDEX. 


Abd-ul-Aziz,  293,  360 

Abd-ul-Hamid,  337,  360 

Abd-ul-MejId,  268,  350,  360 

Acre,  350 

Adair,  Sir  R.,  258 

Adam,  Villiers  de  L'Isle,  170 

Adrianople,  35,  79,  84,  107,  349 

Ahmed  I.,  214 

Ahmed  III.,  253 

Ahmed  Gedik,  136,  139 

Ahmed  Pasha,  309 

Akif  Pasha,  323 

Akinji,  31 

Akkerman,  346 

Akshehr,  41 

Ala-ud-dln,  26,  76 

Alexander  Nevski,  248 

Ah'  Chelebi,  320 

All  Pasha,  42 

All  of  Janina,  344 

Alma,  357 

Altenburg,  180 

Amasia,  79 

Amurath  [Murad] 

Anadolu  Hisar,  108 

Andronicus,  25,  33 

Angora,  8,  66-72 

Anne,  33 

Anne  Tsaritza,  254 

Apostasy,  353 

Arabia,  163 

Army  organization,  26,  76,  344 

Ashab-ul-Kalem,  327  ff. 

Astrakhan,  249,  251 

At-Meydani,  130 


Aubusson,  D',  142,  150 
Aviano,  234-5 
Aydin,  19,  33 
Aynegol,  16 
Azov,  251-2,  255 


Bab-i-Humayun,  269 

Baghdad,  219-20 

Bahory,  Stephen,  25 

Bajazet  [BdyezJd] 

Baki,  312,  314-5 

Balaklava,  357 

Balkan,  passage  of,  89 

Baltaji,  283-4 

Baphoeum,  19 

Barbarossa,  196 

Batak,  360 

Batu,  247 

Bayezid  I.,  31,  40,  43,  46-73 

BayezTd  II.,  140-150 

Bebek,  265 

Beglerbeg,  92 

Beglerbeg  palace,  266 

Bektash,  Hajji,  28 

Belgrade,  88,  97-8,  169-170,  2^9, 

241,  254 
Bem,  354 

Berlin,  Treaty  of,  362 
Beshiktash,  266 
Bey  bars,  159 
Bilejik,  15 
Bithynia,  9,  19 
Borgia,  Alexander,  149-50 
Bostanji  Bashi,  278,  283 


368 


INDEX. 


Boucicault,  52 
Briick,  183 

Brusa,  9,  22,  23,  84,  97 
Bucharest,  Treaty,  259,  343 
Buda,  179,  180 
Bulgaria,  360,  362,  364 
Buyukdere,  265 
Byron,  260-1,  266,  345 

C. 

Candia,  225 

Canning,  George,  346 

Canning,    Stratford,    258-9,    265, 

350-356,  359 
Cantacuzenus,  33-5 
Capistran,  St.  John,  97 
Carlowitz,  241,  252 
Castles  of  Anatolia  and  Rumelia, 

108 
Castriota,  George  of,  133-5 
Catherine,  253 
Chaldiran,  157 
Charles  v.,  191 
Charles  VIII.,  146-50 
Charles  XII.,  252 
Chawush,  283-4,  327 
Chelebi,  83 
Chichakov,  259 
Chingiz,  2,  3,  247 
Choczim,  225 
Church,  Sir  R.,  345 
Cicila,  213 
Comines,  De,  87 
Comnenus,  David,  136 
Constantine  Palaeologus,  107-126 
Constantinople,  sieges  of,  63,  65, 

79,  86,  108-133 
Cossacks,  225 

Creasy,  Sir  E.,  28,  91-5,  161,  199 
Crete,  225 

Crimea  [Arm]  y 

Crimean  War,  356-8  / 
Croia,  134 
Cyprus,  363 

D. 

Dardanelles,  356,  359 
Defterdar,  328 
Demetrius  IV.,  248 


Derebeys,  343 
Despina,  49 
Diebitsch,  349 
Divan,  335 
Diyarbekr,  158 
Dolmabaghche,  266 
Doria,  196,  210 
Dragut,  196 
Ducas,  33 
Dufferin,  Lord,  359 

E. 

Edebali,  13-15 

Egypt,  161 

Ekrem  Bey,  323 

Elchi,  the  Great  [Canning^ 

Empire,  Eastern,  32 

Erivan,  219-20 

Ermeni,  9,  10,  16 

Ertoghrul,  8-15 

Ertoghrul,  son  of  BayezTd,  65 

Eskishehr,  10,   15 

Esterhazy,  227 

Euboea,  136 

Eugene,  Prince,  241 

Eunuchs,  288 

Evliya  Efendi,  321 

Eyalet,  330 

Eyyub,  262 

F. 

Fazil,  GhazI,  302 

Ferdinand,  Archduke,  179,  192 

Finlay,  20,  33,  75 

Fitnet,  322 

Flor,  Roger  de,  32 

Francis  I.,  173 

Froissart,  57-59 

Fuzidl,  312-4 


Galata,  34,  262 
Gallipoli,  34,  80 
Gaza,  161 
Gediklij  291 
Genoese,  32-4,  9^  "7 
George  Brankovich,  86 
Georgia,  217 
Ghazel,  303 


INDEX, 


369 


Gh&rT,  El,  160,  161 

Gibb,    E.  J.    W.,    108-11,    124, 

131-3,  145,  150,  309 
Gibbon,  111-131 
Giustiniani  \Justiniani\ 
Golden  Horn,  262 
Gotthard,  St.,  222 
Gran,  180 
Graviere,  Jurien  de  la,  139,  169, 

174 
Greek  War,  345-9 
Guards,  28 
Gulhane,  352 
Gurko,  361 


H 

Hafiz,  218 
Ilajji  Khalifa,  321 
Hamid,  8,  41 
Hammer,  Von,  16,  208 
Hatti-SherTf,  352 
Hatti-IIumayun,  359 
Haydar,  43 
Hermannstadt,  88 
Herzegovina,  360 
Hiong  Nu,  3 
Hippodrome,  130 
Hulagu,  154 
Hungary,  179 
Hunkiar  Iskelesi,  349 
Hunyady,  87-98 


Tbn-Kemal,  311 
Ibrahim,  173,  187,  319 
Iconium,  8 
Igor,  245,  250 
Ikbal,  292 
Inkerman,  357 
Innocent  VIII.,  146-9 
Irene,  St.,  269 
Isa,  79 
Isladi,  89 

Ismail,  Shah,  153-8 
Istambol,  262 
Itburuni,  13 
Ivan  the  Great,  249 
Ivan  the  Terrible,  251 
Izzet  Molla,  322 


Jami,  102 

Janissary,  27,  76,  344 

Jariya,  291 

J  assy  [  Yassy\ 

Jean  de  Vienne,  55 

Jelayirs,  154 

Jem,  Prince,  141 -1 50 

John  of  Austria,  Don,  209 

Joseph  of  Austria,  255 

Jouan-Jouan,  4 

Julian,  Card.,  88,  90,  91,  95 

Justiniani,  1 14-123 

K 

Kadi,  335 

Kadin,  291 

Kafes,  275 

Kaimmakam,  330 

Kait  Bey,  160 

Kansu  El-Ghurl,  160 

Kapudan  Pasha,  335-6 

Kapuji,  269 

Karaja,  92 

Karaja  Hisar,  15 

Karaman,  19,  50,  80,  142 

Kara  Mustafa,  226,  236 

Karasi,  25 

Karatova,  49 

Kasida,  315 

Kasim,  83 

Kay-Kubad,  8 

Kaynarji,  254 

Kazan,  249,  251 

KazI-ul-Asker,  334 

Kemal  Bey,  323 

Kemal-Pasha-Zada  Ahmed,  31 1 

Keresztes,  213 

Kermiyan,  40 

Khalifate,  162-3 

Khasseki,  283-4 

Khasseki  Sultan,  291 

Khazar,  245 

Kherson,  255 

Khey  Bey,  162 

Kheyr-ed-din  [Barbarossd] 

Khiva  or   Khuwarezm,  Shahs  of, 

5,6 
Khoja-i-jihan,  102 
Khojas,  328 


370 


INDEX. 


Khurrcm,  195 

Kiev,  245  ff. 

Kizlar  Aghasi,  288 

Knolles,  44,    46,  49,  69-72,  87, 

96-7,  294  flf. 
Koprilis,  221-240 
Korkud,  153 
Kosovo,  43,  96 
Kossuth,  354 
Krim  (Crimea),   136,    249,    251, 

254-5 
Kurdistan,  158 
Kurt  Bay,  162 
Kyahya  Bey,  327 


I 

Lala  Mustafa,  209 

Lala  Shahin,  36 

Lazarus  of  Serbia,  43 

Lebanon,  359 

Lemberg,  225 

Lepanto,  140,  209 

Leyla,  322 

Liegnitz,  247 

Liva,  330-1 

Loredano,  80,  136 

Lorraine,  Charles  of,  227,  234 

Louis  L  of  Hungary,  36 

Louis  n.  of  Hungary,  179 

Louis  XIV.,  226 

Louis  Napoleon,  355 

Louis,  St.,  159 


M 

Magnesia,  96,  174 

Mahmud  H.,  27,  292-3,  321,  333, 

343-350 
Mahmud  Pasha,  102 
Mahomet  [Afo/iummed] 
Mai  Khatun,  13-15 
Malakov,  358 
Malta,  196 

Mamluks,  2,  6,  64,  65,    1 58-162 
Mansura,  159 

Manuel  Palaeologus,  63,  86 
Maritza,  36 
Mariupol,  247 
Marj  Dabik,  161 
Matthias  Corvinus,  133,  146 


Mekka,  208 

Meslhi,  311 

Mihri,  310 

Mikhal  Oglu,  180 

Milosh  Kobilovich,  44,  46 

Modon,  140 

Mohacs,  179,  239 

Mohammed  I.,  74-84,  108 

Mohammed    IL,    90,     loi,    139, 

262,  310 
Mohammed  IH.,  213 
Mohammed  IV.,  237 
Mohammed  All,  343-350 
Mohammed  the  Prophet,  37$ 
Mongols,  2-10 
Montecuculi,  222 
Moors  in  Spain,  209 
Morosini  225,  239 
Morsiney,  Elizabeth,  87 
Moscow,  246  ff. 
Muezzin-zada,  209 
Mufettish,  335 
Mukhtar,  362 
Murad  I.,  16,  35-46,  329 
Murad  II.,  85-97 
Murad  HI.,  213 
Murad  IV.,  217-20 
Murad  V.,  360 
Musa,  79 
Mushavaras,  335 
Mustafa,  85,  195 
Mustafa  II.,  240 
Mustafa,  Lala,  209 
Mutasarrif,  330 
Myrche  of  Wallachia,  50-I 
Mysia,  25 

N 

NabT,  318 

Na'Ima,  320 

Nasmyth,  356 

Navarino,  346 

Nedlm,  318-20 

Nefi,  315-18 

Negropont,  136 

NejatI,  310 

Nenuphar,  16 

Neva,  244,  248 

Nevayi,  Mir  All  Shir,  309 

Nevers,  Count  of,  51,  57 


INDEX. 


371 


Nicaea,  9,  19,  20,  25 

Nice,  145 

Nicholas,  253 

Nicomedia,  23,  25 
i  Nicopolis,  43,  52  flf. 

i  Nishanji  Pashi,  328 

'<         Nissa,  40 
I         Northmen,  245 
^  Novgorod,  244  ff. 

I  ° 

i         Ochakov,  256 
I  Ofen,  180 

I         Oleg,  250 

tOlga,  245 
Orkhan,  15,  23,  25,  35 
Orsova,  52 
I  Orta  Kapu,  270 

I  Ortakoy,  265 

Othman  I.,  13-24 
Othmanli,  13 
Othman  Pasha,  361 
I  Otho,  349 

I  Otranto,  139 

I  Ottomans,  7,  13 


Paget,  Lord,  241 
Palaeologus,  John,  34 
Paris,  Treaty  of,  358 
Parkany,  239 
Parma,  Prince  of,  209 
Parthenon,  239 
Passarowitz,  241 
Patras,  140 
Pelekanon,  25 
Peloponnesus,  60 
Pera,  262,  265 
Pergamon,  25 
Persia,  217 
Pesth,  179,  180 
Peter  11. ,  253 
Peter  the  Great,  252-3 
Philippopolis,  35 
Piali,  196 
Piave,  135 
Piyade,  27 
Plevna,  361 
Podolia,  225 


Poniatovski,  254 
Porte,  Sublime,  269 
Princes  Isles,  261 
Pruth,  253 
Pultowa,  253 


R 

Raab,  180 

Raghib  P.,  318 

Raglan,  Lord,  356-8 

Ragusa,  35 

Reforms,  342,  352 

Reis  Efendi,  327 

Reshid  Pasha,  323,  352 

Reydaniya,  i6i 

Rhodes,  136,  170 

Rhodes,  Knights  of,  141  ff.,  170 

Roe,  Sir  T.,  214 

Romanus,  Tower  of  St.,  114 

Roxelana,  195 

Rumania,  359,  364 

Rumiantzov,  254 

Rumili  Hisar,  108 

Rurik,  245 

Rus,  245 


Sabri,  315 

Sackmen,  180 

Sa'di,  311 

Sa'd-ud-din,  108-II,   124,   131-3, 

304,  320 
Safia,  213 
Saib,  318 

St.  Sophia,  126-131 
Sakariya,  9,  10 
Saladin,  159 
Salih,  Es-,  159 
Salm,  Count  of,  187 
Sami,  318 
Sangarius,  9 
Sanjak,  330 
Sanjak-i-Sherif,  275 
Saru-Khan,  19,  33 
Sassenage,  145 
Saveji,  49 
Schiklberger,  57 
Schimmer,  183,  187,  188 
Schonbrunn,  258 


372 


INDEX. 


Sebaste,  65 

Sefevis,  154 

Sej,  303 

Sellm  I.,  152-164,  310-II 

Sellm  II.,  208,  210,  213 

Seljuk,  2,  8,  16,  50,  86 

Semendria,  49 

Sepoy,  31 

Seraglio,  268-301 

Seraglio  Point,  262,  268 

Seray,  248,  249,  267 

Serbs'  rout,  39 

Sevastopol,  356-8 

Seymour,  Sir  G.  H.,  253 

Shagirds,  291 

Shejer-ed-durr,  159 

Sherif,  334 

Sheykh  Ghalib,  321 

Sheykhl,  304 

Sheykh-ul- Islam,  333-4 

Sheykh-zada,  305 

Shinasi,  323 

Shinitza,  43 

Shipka  Pass,  362 

Shi  as,  154 

Sigismund,  51,  55,  56,  2^7 

Silahdar  Agha,  285 

Silistria,  254,  356       . 

Sinan,  208 

Sinan  Pasha,  157,  161,  309 

Sinope,  136,  356 

Sipahis,  31,  218,  ZiZ 

Sisvan,  42,  51 

Siwas,  65 

Skanderbeg,  133-5 

Skutari,  32,  33 

Slankamen,  240 

Slaves,  33 

Sobieski,  225,  227 

SokoUi,  208,  251 

Soliman  {Suleymari] 

Spires,  Diet  of,  183 

Stahremberg,  228-236 

Stambol,  260  ff. 

Stefano,  261,  362 

Stephen  of  Serbia,   49,    56,   69, 

76,86 
Stratford  de  Redcliffe,  Lord,  355 

[Canning^ 
Sugut,  9,  13 
Suleyman  Pasha,  34,  35 


Suleyman,  Prince,  79,  83 
Suleyman  the  Magnificent,    165- 

199 
Sultanoni,  10,  16 
Sultans,  table  of,  xix. 
Suvorov,  256 
Svatoslav,  250 
Syria,  161 

Szegedin,  Treaty  of,  89,  90 
Szigetvar,  192 


Tamerlane  [Tinmr\ 
Tartars,  247  ff. 
Tebriz,  156,  157,  217 
Terjuman,  328 
Theodora,  33 
Therapia,  265 
Thessalonica,  86 
Tilsit,  257-8 
Timariote,  333 
Timur,  63-73 
Tirnova,  42,  238 
Topji  Bashi,  330 
Torghud,  196 
Towers,  Seven,  261,  336 
Treasury,  274 
Trebizond,  136 
Tugh,  331-2,  337 
Tughra,  36,  328-30 
Tuman  Bey,  16 1-2 
Turk,  3-8 
Turkoman,  6,  154 
Tvark,  43 
Tzympe,  34 

U 

Uighur,  4 
Ukraine,  225 
Ulema,  333 
Uluj  Ali,  209-210 
Urquhart,  239 
Uskub,  49 
Usta,  291 


Vambery,  88,  98,  179 
Varangian,  245 


INDEX. 


373 


Varna,  91-5 

Vasag,  88 

Vascapu,  88 

Venetian,  210,  225,  239 

Venice,  33,  34,  80,  135,  170,  208 

Vezir,  26,  336 

Vidin,  49,  52 

Vienna,  184,  228-237 

Vilayet,  330 

Vlad,  133 

Vladimir,  246  ff. 

Vladislaus  V.,  88,  92,  95,  96 

Volga,  244 

Volkhov,  244,  245 

Vuk  Brankovich,  43 

W 

Wagram,  258 

Wall,  330 

Wallachia,  White  Knight  of,  87 

Wasif,  322 


Ya'kub,  43,  46 
Ya-iiboli,  238 
Yassy,  256 
Yazigi-oghlu,  305 
Yenikale,  252 
Yenishehr,  15,  19 
Yildiz  Koshki,  266 
Yildirim,  43 


Zapolya,  179 
Zati,  31Q 
Zenta,  241 
Zeyneb,  310 
Zimiskes,  250 
Ziyamet,  333 
Zizim  [yem] 
Zrinyi,  192,  195 


Z 

[80,  192 


Ubc  Stori^  of  the  IRationa 


Messrs.  G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS  take  pleasure  in 
announcing  that  they  Jiave  in  course  of  publication,  in 
co-operation  with  Mr.  T.  Fisher  Unwin,  of  London,  a 
series  of  historical  studies,  intended  to  present  in  a 
graphic  manner  the  stories  of  the  different  nations  that 
have  attained  prominence  in  history. 

In  the  story  form  the  current  of  each  national  life  is 
distinctly  indicated,  and  its  picturesque  and  noteworthy 
periods  and  episodes  are  presented  for  the  reader  in  their 
philosophical  relation  to  each  other  as  well  as  to  universal 
history. 

It  is  the  plan  of  the  writers  of  the  different  volumes  to 
enter  into  the  real  life  of  the  peoples,  and  to  bring  them 
before  the  reader  as  they  actually  lived,  labored,  and 
struggled — as  they  studied  and  wrote,  and  as  they  amused 
themselves.  In  carrying  out  this  plan,  the  myths,  with 
which  the  history  of  all  lands  begins,  will  not  be  over- 
looked, though  these  will  be  carefully  distinguished  from 
the  actual  history,  so  far  as  the  labors  of  the  accepted 
historical  authorities  have  resulted  in  definite  conclusions. 

The  subjects  of  the  different  volumes  have  been  planned 
to  cover  connecting  and,  as  far  as  possible,  consecutive 
epochs  or  periods,  so  that  the  set  when  completed  will 
present  in  a  comprehensive  narrative  the  chief  events  in 


the  great  STORY  OF  THE  NATIONS ;  but  it  is,  of  course, 
not  always  practicable  to  issue  the  several  volumes  in 
their  chronological  order. 

The  *'Sto*-ies"  are  printed  in  good  readable  type,  and 
in  handsome  i2mo  form.  They  are  adequately  illustrated 
and  furnished  with  maps  and  indexes.  Price,  per  vol., 
cloth,  $1.50.     Half  morocco,  gilt  top,  $1.75. 

The  following  are  now  ready  (Feb.,  1897)  : 


GREECE.  Prof.  Jas.  A.  Harri- 
son. 

ROME.    ArthurCilman. 

THE  JEWS.  Prof.  James  K.Hos- 
mer. 

CHALDEA.    Z.A.  Ragozin. 

GERMANY.    S.  Baring-Gould. 

NORWAY.  Hjalmar  H.  Boye- 
sen. 

SPAIN.  Rev.  E.  E.  and  Susan 
Hale. 

HUNGARY.   Prof.  A.  Vambery. 

CARTHAGE.  Prof.  Alfred  J. 
Church. 

THE  SARACENS.  Arthur  Gil- 
man. 

THE  MOORS  IN  SPAIN.  Stan- 
ley Lane-Poole. 

THE  NORMANS.  Sarah  Orne 
Jewett. 

PERSIA.    S.  G.  W.  Benjamin. 

ANCIENT  EGYPT.  Prof.  Geo. 
Rawlinson. 

ALEXANDER'S  EMPIRE.  Prof. 
J.  P.  Mahaffy. 

ASSYRIA.    Z.  A.  Ragozin. 

THE  GOTHS.    Henry  Bradley. 

IRELAND.    Hon.  Emily  Lawless. 

TURKEY.     Stanley   Lane-Poole. 

MEDIA,  BABYLON,  AND  PER- 
SIA.   Z.  Ai  Ragozin. 

MEDIAEVAL  FRANCE.  Prof. 
Gustave  Masson. 

HOLLAND.  Prof.  J.  Thorold 
Rogers. 

MEXICO.   Susan  Hale. 

PHSNICIA.     Geo.  Rawlinson 


THE    HANSA   TOWNS.     Helen 

Zimmern. 
EARLY  BRITAIN.    Prof.  Alfred 

J.  Church. 
THE     BARBARY     CORSAIRS. 

Stanley  Lane-Poole. 
RUSSIA.    W.  R.  Morfill. 
THE  JEWS  UNDER  ROME.   W. 

D.  Morrison. 
SCOTLAND.    John  Mackintosh. 
SWITZERLAND.    R.  Stead  and 

Mrs.  A.   Hug. 
PORTUGAL.    H.  Morse  Stevens. 
THE  BYZANTINE  EMPIRE.  C. 

W.  C.  Oman. 
SICILY.     E.  A.  Freeman. 
THE     TUSCAN     REPUBLICS. 

Bella  Duffy. 
POLAND.    W.  R. 'Morfill. 
PARTHIA.     Geo.  Rawlinson. 
JAPAN.    David   Murray. 
THE    CHRISTIAN    RECOVERY 

OF  SPAIN.    H.E.  Watts. 
AUSTRALASIA.      Greville   Tre- 

garthen. 
SOUTHERN  AFRICA.    Geo.  M. 

Theal. 
VENICE.   AletheaWiel. 
THE  CRUSADES.    T.S.Archer 

and  C.  L.  Kingsford. 
VEDIC  INDIA.    Z.  A.  Ragozin. 
BOHEMIA.    C.E.Maurice. 
CANADA.    J.G.  Bourinot. 
THE    BALKAN   STATES.     Wil- 
liam  Miller. 

RULE   IN   INDIA.     R. 


RETUI*  M      J  DESK  fKCM  WiiXH  TlORROWr  ->    | 

LOAN  DEPT. 

RENEWALS  ONLY— TEL.  NO.  642-3405 

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0^ 


m^ 


\970 


BEC'DLD     JU 


_9.97Q-2PW14  5 


DEC    8t97025 


^g'D  U)     DEC 


•■'^^O-lPMSy 


t^EBit-DlffiS&jl? 


UAN  2  J  78 


DEC  7    1975 


,  m      .  :.  "^ 


OCT  1 6  20114 


LD2lA-60w-3,'70 
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